Cast Swap
by Animation Adventures
Summary: What if the new casts from seasons four and six swapped seasons? How would the challenges go with the original Floating Salmon and Confused Bears replacing the original Mutant Maggots and Toxic Rats, and vice versa? How would Dave react to being on an island infected by toxic waste? What would happen to Dakota if she wasn't on an island that could turn her into a monster?
1. TDRI Episode 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything familiar within the franchise.

Episode 1- Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!

In space, an astronaut attempted to fix a satellite marked 'TDI' which was scratched out and subsequently marked 'TDA' and 'TDWT'. Both were scratched out as well, and a big 'TDRI' was marked onto the satellite in black paint instead. While the astronaut fixed it, some panels came off, causing the astronaut to slap his hand to his helmet.

"We've been to the movies; we've been around the world," Chris McLean narrated as the scene zoomed in down on Earth, and displayed the Total Drama series' famous island. "And this season, we're going right back to where it all began- at Camp Wawanakwa!" Chris was shown standing on the island's famed Dock of Shame, which appeared to be suffering from wear and tear with several planks splintered or broken off. "I'm Chris McLean, and as you can see," Chris continued to say as he walked to the dock's edge towards an intern that was holding a plate with a coconut drink, "things have changed since we've been away." As if on cue, one side of the island's 'Wawanakwa' sign fell from its post. "And by changed," the host picked up the drink from the plate, "I meant gotten really, really dangerous."

A huge tentacle rose out of the water behind the pair, and slammed down on the dock's edge. Chris jumped back as the tentacle struck down, demolishing the edge to splinters and taking the intern with it. Whereas most would be horrified by the action, Chris merely laughed.

"Good stuff," he said before turning his attention back to the camera and becoming more serious, "but the rules of the game remain the same. A handful of unsuspecting teens will bunk with complete strangers." As he explained the game, the camera briefly flashed to inside one of the old cabins from season one, looking the same as two seasons ago, but with that same sense of wear and tear as the dock had displayed. "Air their dirty laundry in our outhouse confessional," the host narrated over a quick peek inside the series' notorious confessional outhouse, which was still fly-ridden as ever, "and compete in life-threatening challenges all over the island, and risk being voted off." In a throwback to the series' first ever challenge, the camera viewed the Thousand-Foot-High Cliff and the water below it. The water showed its life-threatening appearance by displaying some jagged rocks poking out of the water's surface. This was followed by a shot of the camp's campfire area, complete with stump seats and Chris's oil drum podium.

"Last one standing wins one million dollars!" Chris summarized as the viewers were shown a wheelbarrow full of money. "Speaking of our cast, here they come now!"

On a yacht sailing towards the island were all twenty-four of the contestants seen in the previous three seasons. On the ship's portside, Harold, Leshawna, and DJ danced while Duncan made out with Gwen, and Eva stood off to the side with her arms crossed. On the stern deck, Owen pumped his fists, Sierra snuggled a happy, compliant Cody, and Noah watched as Izzy played with the life preserver rings while she dangled over the ship's edge. Underneath a backwards baseball hat, Sierra's hair was slowly starting to grow back from being burned off in the Total Drama Jumbo Jet's explosion. Up on a deck higher up from them, Tyler and Lindsay made out like Duncan and Gwen on the railing while Beth admired a shirtless Justin posing for her. The moment was effectively ruined when a seagull pooped on Justin's shoulder. On the boat's bow deck, Trent found himself sandwiched between Katie and Sadie, Courtney watched with jealousy as Bridgette partied with Geoff, Alejandro (stuck in the robot suit) held Heather in his arms, and feral Ezekiel perched on the railing to feel the wind in his face.

Just as it seemed like the boat was going to dock at the island, it actually passed the island instead.

Owen let out a despaired cry of "Nooooo!" Chris couldn't help, but chuckle at the food lover's disappointment.

"No," Chris corrected the audience, "not them. This season, we have all-new players fighting for the million. Here they come now, for real!"

Another smaller yacht made its way towards the island, all of fourteen of the contestants in the camera's sight.

The first person on the bow deck was a black-haired First Nations girl in a pale olive and purple blouse and black athletic pants, around her neck she wore a purple bead necklace to match the purple on her blouse, and had red feather earrings. "Meet Sky!"

The newly named Sky held up a pack of gum, and turned to the shorter, pale boy next to her. He had purple hair, and wore a gray jumpsuit. "Want some gum?" She held out a stick from her pack to him.

"Max," Chris declared the boy's name.

"Your offer of simple confectionery will not save you from the evil of me!" Max scoffed, hunching his back and holding his hands out in front of him maniacally. His eyes took on a mad scientist look for only a moment before returning to normal, as did his posture. "But yes, thank you." He took the stick, and tossed it in his mouth. Almost immediately he began to gag, and clutched his chest. He coughed, and hacked the gum wad out into his hand. "Cinnamon, there is no need for you to be that spicy!" He scolded the wad.

Next to him, wearing a blue sweater vest and khakis, an Indian boy with dark hair chuckled awkwardly at Max's antics. "That guy's a little weird," he remarked to Sky.

"Dave, and Ella!"

A vaguely Asian girl with black hair dressed in a pink blouse, skirt, and bow leaned over to Dave. "I think it's lovely that he tried the gum even if he didn't like it afterwards," said Ella.

A bit weirded out by how close she was leaning near him, and her attitude in general, Dave mulled over how to respond. "Um, sure?"

"Sugar!" The host introduced the next contestant. As if hearing her name called, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, overweight girl in a pink top and blue jeans hurried on-camera, shoving Dave and Ella into Max and Sky. Max was rather irritated at being squished between three people.

"Move over, yer hoggin' the spotlight! It's my turn!" Sugar commanded as she did so, and then struck a pose for the camera.

"Oops, sorry!" Ella apologized.

As much as Chris would've loved to capture this dramatic encounter, he still had to introduce the other contestants. "Beardo!"

A fart sound rang out, and Sugar's eyes went wide. "Uh, that was not me! A pageant queen never farts… unless it's her talent…" She said, trying to defend herself.

Panning past her, the fart sound's true source was seen. The source was an African-Canadian teen who wore a gray, greasy shirt under gray suspenders and gray jeans. Unbelievably for someone his age, he had a huge afro and a big beard. He smiled knowingly, and made the sound of a television audience's applause.

"Where's that applause comin' from? Are we gonna be in front of an audience? This just gets better n' better!" Sugar said off-screen.

Chris cut off Sugar's fascination with another camper's introduction, "Scarlett!"

Past Beardo, a redhead with green eyes and round glasses, wearing a yellow sweater and blue skirt, observed Beardo. "Interesting, you appear to have trained yourself to mimic the abilities of a lyrebird. I suppose the ability could be picked up by humans, but that would take a lot of practice." She noted, and Beardo shrugged at her.

"Rodney!" Chris introduced once more as the camera moved to Scarlett's right. Another redhead, this one a boy, was huge in comparison to her. He wore a white shirt underneath his blue overalls.

The tall, bulky farm boy gazed at Scarlett in awe. "Wow… you're so smart…"

Scarlett gave him a questioning look at his behavior. "Um, thank you, I suppose."

The scene switched to a lower deck on the yacht's side where a blonde-haired, green-eyed girl in a red and white cheerleading uniform stood. She also had a beauty mark on her face.

"Amy and Samey!" The host's voice narrated.

The girl waved. "Hey everyone, I'm Amy. Pay no attention to my sister, Samey, she's a loser."

A girl nearly identical to her walked up to her, only she didn't have a beauty mark. "Amy, will you please stop telling people my name is Samey, and not Sammy? I don't really like that."

"No one cares what you think, Samey. You're just a spare me," the first cheerleader with the beauty mark sneered. "Now get away from me, you're in my shot." Amy pushed her sister back, and Sammy fell to the deck floor.

A tall Australian girl in a slouch hat, wilderness vest and shorts, and a white undershirt, walked over with a glare directed towards Amy after seeing Amy shove her sister down. "That's a bit brutal to your own sister, don't you think?"

"Jasmine!" Chris introduced the new girl.

Amy squeaked upon seeing her. "Giant!"

"We're going to have problems, aren't we?" Jasmine quipped, still glaring at Amy.

"Topher!" Chris' voice announced, interrupting the confrontation.

The introduced teen hurried over to the scene. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with a color scheme identical to Chris's own, and khaki pants the same color as Chris's as well. His hair was a dirty blonde, almost brown, and his eyes were green. "We're not even on our first challenge yet, and there's already tension? I love this show!" He proclaimed, rubbing his hands together eagerly while Sammy hesitantly got to her feet between her sister and Jasmine.

"Leonard!"

On another deck at the back of the yacht, Leonard stood in a green wizard robe, complete with a gray, fake beard and a floppy, green wizard's hat. He appeared to be reading from a book. "Okay, time to review a few spells that I might need. Spells for boosting team power, page 75."

"And Shawn!"

Shawn had himself perched up on top of the boat. He wore a white sweater underneath an orange vest, jeans, and had most of his light brown hair tucked under a sickly green beanie hat.

"Hah! It's already impossible for zombies to get onto a boat that's out in the water, but I'd like to see them get up here." He boasted with a smug smile.

Chris stood on the dock sipping his coconut drink. "That's right! This season is our roughest, toughest, and most dangerous season ever!" Chris pulled out a remote and pressed the button on it. The yacht exploded, sending the contestants flying in every direction and screaming their lungs out. "Here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

* * *

 _Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine. You guys are on my mind…_

All over the island, hidden cameras thrust themselves out of their hiding places, ready to record action, including one that was being held by a tentacle in a tree knothole. A camera zoomed all over the island, briefly showing Chris standing on top of a totem pole with a whip while four interns struggled to carry the totem pole. The camera went up to the Thousand-Foot-High Cliff, and dove off of it, splashing into the water.

Max unhappily swam in the lake until a claw like machine grabbed him by his swim trunks, and pulled him up to the surface.

 _You asked me what I wanted to be and now I think the answer is plain to see…_

Up in a canoe, Scarlett tinkered with the machine, and looked up as it pulled Max out of the water. Eyeing the ungrateful boy, Scarlett smugly pressed a button on the machine, and it flung Max far away. Max eventually reached his arc, and began to descend back towards the ground.

 _I wanna be famous…_

Somewhere in the woods, Leonard tried to cast spells on a flower with a stick wand, but was interrupted when Max landed on top of him. Sky ran by while doing a jog, and passed Ella on her way. Ella was walking and singing to an assortment of mutated animals on the island, including a winged goat and a three-eyed frog, before a giant mutant gopher came out of the ground and roared at them, causing Ella and her animal friends to run away in terror.

 _I wanna live close to the sun…_

The camera panned to a waterfall, where Amy and Sammy were in the same canoe, arguing until they both noticed the waterfall. They went over the edge, and both started screaming as they fell.

 _Well, pack your bags cause I've already won…_

Jasmine stood on a branch acting as a bridge over the bottom of the waterfall, waiting patiently, and noticed the twins falling. With quick reflexes, she grabbed Sammy by the wrist, and pulled her onto the branch bridge, which the nice twin is grateful for. The action was quickly forgotten when the branch snapped in half, sending them both down into the water anyway.

 _Everything to prove nothing in my way…_

Shawn leaned against the confessional while watching Jasmine and Sammy with approval until a shark with legs emerged out of the confessional, and he ran away out of fright. The shark raised an eyebrow at Shawn in confusion.

 _I'll get there one day…_

Zooming into the mess hall, Chef was stirring some concoction together until Sugar threw him away from the pot. Sugar picked up the pot, and chugged down its contents.

 _Cause I wanna be famous…_

Dave prodded a bowl of mush with a spoon nervously until his face took on an annoyed expression. Displeased, he put fingers in his ears, and a pan to his left revealed that Beardo was moving his mouth and making a bunch of noises. The scene switched from inside the mess hall to the beach as Sky arrived at the beach, jumping with joy as she completed her jog.

 _Nana nana na nana na nanana…_

On the Dock of Shame, Rodney appeared to be contemplating over pictures of Amy, Jasmine, and Scarlett. A purple, furry hand snatched away Amy's picture, to which Rodney gasped. As the camera panned over, the owner of the purple hand was revealed to be Sasquatchinakwa, one of the island's resident creatures. He made kissy faces at Amy's picture until Rodney hurried over to him. Cradling Jasmine and Scarlett's pictures in his other arm, Rodney extended his free arm over Sasquatchinakwa's shoulder, trying to grab at the picture the purple yeti stole. The sasquatch made an annoyed face at Rodney bothering him.

 _I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous…_

A pair of hands, Topher's hands, turned the camera towards the Dock of Shame. He backed up, checked his hair, and spread out his arms like Chris does during his intro and outro. He raised them halfway up before Chris dumped a bucket of water on him. Drenched and indignant, Topher glared up at the host as he flew away on his jetpack.

 _I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous…_

The scene changed to a bonfire and showed Dave and Sky sitting next to each other. They looked at each other with nervous smiles, wondering if they should get closer together or not. Both immediately disregarded the idea when Chef appeared with a toxic marshmallow, and Dave scrambled away. The scene got wider, revealing that Dave has hid himself behind Shawn while everyone whistled to the show's theme. In the last shot, a sign read "Total Drama: Revenge of the Island".

* * *

Leonard screamed as he slammed onto a rock breaching the lake's surface. "Force… field…" he moaned weakly as he slid into the water.

Topher swam past him, commenting, "Blowing up the boat? Awesome! That's going to be ratings gold!"

Clutching driftwood as support, Max and Sammy swam towards shore at a slow pace, their faces indicating how shaken they were by the explosion. Coming up between them, Amy smashed their supports to pieces.

"Have fun drowning, Samey!" She callously laughed, swimming on ahead. Along the way, she passed Sky, who had stopped to tread water.

The gymnast watched the mean twin's actions, and called out as Amy swam away, "Hey! That was uncalled for!" Unhappy with the mean twin, she returned to her original goal of swimming to shore.

Back at the rock, Leonard was having trouble keeping himself afloat with his wizard robes dragging him down. "Help! My cloak isn't durable for wading through water."

Dave swam past him with an uncaring look in his eye. "Should've thought of that before wearing it out here."

Leonard started to go under, but after a moment, Sugar rose out of the water, holding him in her arms. "I'll save you, Wizard!" she declared, not even noticing that her makeup was running from being underwater.

He sputtered out some water before smiling to his savior. "Thank you, kind maiden."

"You're welcome. Now come on, let's get to shore." Sugar held onto Leonard's body with one arm, and used the other to swim to the closest part of the beach.

Sammy smiled, watching Sugar's rescue. "Well, at least he's got someone looking out for him," she said, and then frowned at her words. "Now I just wish I had someone looking out for me."

"Oi, keep swimming!" Jasmine told her as she swam by. "Who knows what Chris has stocked in these waters?"

Reeling with realization, Sammy panicked. "Oh, right!" Hurrying, she swam after Jasmine.

Rodney sighed blissfully. "All the girls here swim like angels…" He trailed off for a moment, and then something caught his eye, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Huh?"

The camera zoomed out a little to show Beardo's giant ball of hair swimming past him. Bubbles formed on the water's surface, and popped while making the sound of a submarine sonar.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"It's so unfair," Sammy sighed, her arms and legs crossed as she sat in the outhouse confessional. "I auditioned for Total Drama to get away from Amy."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher sat in the outhouse with his hands behind his head and one leg propped up on the seat. "The Total Drama confessional, a series must-have. I have to say, Chris picked a good group of campers for this season; I can just feel the drama radiating off this group already."

* * *

Reaching the beach, Sky panted as she walked onto the sand. Looking around her, she began to cheer. "The first one on the beach? Yes!"

"Not quite," Shawn's voice interrupted. Sky glanced further down the beach, and saw Shawn sitting on a rock, wringing out his beanie hat.

"Whoa," Sky gaped at him. "I didn't even see you there. How'd you get here first?"

"I was on the highest point of the boat when it exploded," he answered while putting his hat back on. "It gave me good distance."

Sky opened her mouth to respond when Dave crawled onto shore. "I made it…" he gasped out before collapsing face first into the sand.

* * *

(Confessional- Dave)

The normal guy squirted hand sanitizer on his hands, and set his pocket-sized bottle aside on the seat, beginning to rub his hands together to spread the cleaning product. "Eugh, this outhouse is so unclean… anyway, that Sky girl, she seems nice. She looks saner than most of the other people here. If I have to get stuck on a team with one of these people, I'd prefer her."

* * *

Sugar came walking out of the water as if she had walked on the bottom of the lake the whole way there, and she had Leonard in her arms. Once they were on dry land, she dropped Leonard onto the ground.

She boastfully declared, "I brought the wizard!"

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I think it's obvious that I'm gonna win this here show," she told the camera. "I've got looks, brains, and enough muscle to tip over a cow. Combine those with that handsome wizard, I'm a shoo-in!"

* * *

Most of the new contestants had arrived at the beach by that point. Amy made it a point to sit next to her sister so she could make her feel bad, and Shawn still sat at his rock Sky found him on. Dave sat with Sky, and Rodney attempted to get all the water out of his shoe. Max was the most recent to arrive, as his washing ashore got the attention of most of the others. He coughed up a fish, much to Dave's disgust.

Standing up at Max's arrival, Scarlett started doing a head count. "I count thirteen. Are we still missing one?"

As if on cue, Ella appeared on the beach, except she didn't come from the water; she came from the air, totally dry. The others gawked as a number of little birds gently lowered her onto the sand. Upon releasing her, the birds quickly flew away.

"Thank you, my feathered friends~!" She sung, oblivious to the looks she was getting.

* * *

(Confessional- Ella)

"When the boat exploded, I made friends with some lovely birds that were flying by at the moment, and they were very kind to help me get to shore," Ella explained happily, and then frowned. "Though, they seemed to be in a hurry when they left. I wonder why that may be."

* * *

Max scowled as he emptied water from his shoe. "How dare that imbecile make the boat detonate with me on it? Chris should know that I will be ruling over the world one day, and he will serve me." He stated seriously. "Since this is our first meeting, I'll let him off with a warning."

"Agreed," Leonard nodded. "I didn't even get a chance to cast a foresight spell, or a force field spell to protect myself."

Dave glanced at Sky weirdly. "He does know he's not a wizard, right?"

Sky didn't even get a chance to respond before the island's intercom turned on.

"Attention fresh meat," Chris' voice boomed over the loudspeakers. "See the trail leading into the forest?" The contestants all looked further up the beach, seeing a path heading into the trees. "Race to the end of the trail, and do not disturb the wildlife. That would be bad."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, we'll upset the bunnies. Fluffy little bunnies that eat carrots." Beardo and Sky chuckled along with the joke.

"The tiniest sound can set them off, like this!" Chris blew an air horn over the loudspeakers. The loud noise made the contestants wince, and cover their ears. The air horn quieted after a few moments, allowing the campers to hear again.

Not too far away, a primal roar echoed across the island, and trees could be seen getting knocked down.

Immediately afraid for their lives, the campers quickly got up and ran onto the forest path, screaming in fright.

* * *

In the forest, a bird skittered along a branch in a tree and was soon snatched up by a tongue that whipped out from a tree hollow, leaving behind a few feathers.

Over at a finish line on the path, Sky crossed first. "Oh yeah! Actually first this time, woo!" She cheered, pumping fists in the air. She looked behind her to see Jasmine and Shawn cross the finish line as well, second and third respectively. "Nice job, guys!" Sky praised the two.

Shawn stood tall with pride. "Hey, if you want to escape the walkers then you've got to run as fast as you can."

"I've just got really long legs," Jasmine shrugged.

Chris arrived on an ATV. "Not too bad. Little Gymnast, Zombie Survivalist, off to the right, you two are on Team A. Miss Wilderness, two steps to the left, you're on Team B." Jasmine did as he said and moved to the left of his vehicle.

"I'm here Chris, I'm here." Rodney crossed the finish line.

"Farm Muscle, Team B." Dave came screaming across the finish line, crashing into Sky and knocking her over. "Sir Scream-a-lot, Team A."

Dave quickly got up and helped Sky back on her feet. "Sorry about that, still freaking out over what we heard back at the beach."

Amy and Sammy came in next at the same time, sliding to a stop. "I won again, Samey, will you ever stop losing? Wait, let me answer that, probably not." Amy sneered in her sister's face, much to Sammy's displeasure.

"Victorious Twin, Team B." Chris said to Amy. Leaving her sister to be alone and depressed, Amy happily walked over to join Jasmine and Rodney. Hearing the screeching of tires, Sammy looked around for the sound's source. Beardo arrived fast and put on the brakes. Sammy looked at him oddly, and was about to ask him about it before Chris announced, "Human Beatbox, Team A; Second Amy, Team B."

"Do I really have to be on the same team as her?" Sammy asked Chris, pointing to her sister, who strangely looked like she was delighted by Sammy's team assignment.

Chris nodded happily, "Afraid so." Sammy sighed, and went over to join them.

"La la la," Ella hummed a little tune as she walked across the finish line.

"Pink Princess, Team A." Chris ordered, a little annoyed by Ella's cheerful singing.

"Thank you~!" She sang in response, joining her team, unknowingly irritating Chris further.

"Chris!" Topher ran across the finish line, and rushed up to greet his idol eagerly. "Chris, it is an honor to meet you! You've inspired me so much."

"Personal Biggest Fan, Team B." Chris said to Topher, patting him on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs-up and a smile. Topher accepted the assignment, and jogged over to join his team.

Sugar walked across the finish line tiredly. "So tired, can't walk much further." She crossed the white line just as she collapsed face down.

"Hahaha! Serves her right!" Max laughed as he walked past her. As if she had energy left to spare, Sugar lifted up her head to scowl at him.

"Wizard Saver, Team A; Purple Gnome, Team B."

"I still haven't forgotten your little stunt with blowing up the boat, future minion. Watch yourself," Max warned Chris as he walked past him. Disturbed by Max's look at him, Chris cringed.

Leonard walked across the finish line and greeted Chris. "Hello, sir, have the factions been determined yet?"

"Almost," Chris nodded to him, "Gray Beard, you're on Team A." Lastly, Scarlett came across the finish line, walking with confidence. "Quiet Genius, Team B."

Shawn looked between the host and both teams. "Great, now answer this? Just what the heck was that back there?!"

"I've never heard anything like that before," Jasmine noted from Team B.

Chris shrugged nonchalantly, and examined his hands momentarily. "Relax, it will all make sense eventually." He chuckled then laughed then went into a full cackle, worrying some of the contestants. He concluded his fit of laughter by wiping a tear from his eye. "Now, this season of Total Drama will be a little bit different. For example, in every episode, someone will be eliminated." This announcement received gasps and whispers from everyone.

Topher smirked at Chris. "Really making us work for that immunity this time, huh Chris? I like it."

"I know," Chris agreed, "I'm good. But since you're all first-timers, I'm going to cut you a break, and hide this bad boy somewhere in the campgrounds." He retrieved something from the dashboard of his ATV, and held it up. It was a wooden carving of his head. "A genuine McLean brand Chris head," he explained as the item was shown with a background of Chef Hatchet in an angel costume playing a harp. "Your free ticket back into the game. Even if your teammates vote you off, whoever finds it will become the most powerful contestant in Total Drama history!" He elaborated, earning curious looks from most of the contestants, and a look of awe from Sugar. Finished with his explanation, Chris frowned, and brought the carving down to eye level, and examined it while feeling his chin with his other hand. "Is the cleft on my chin really that big?"

Sugar giggled as she finally got to her feet. "Yep, kinda looks like someone's butt!"

Scowling at the pageant queen's answer, the host tucked the idol away. "Moving on," he said, shifting the topic away from that. "Time for the team names!"

"Team EVIL!" Max immediately called out, getting dirty looks from Amy and Scarlett, along with a shocked one from Sammy. "No, Max's Minions!"

"Great suggestions, Max," Chris replied sarcastically, wearing a smile. "But, names have already been chosen by moi. Team A, you shall be known henceforth as the Toxic Rats!" On cue, the team logo- a six-pawed, angry rat in green was shown on-screen.

With the exception of Leonard, none of the team seemed particularly thrilled by the choice.

"Did he just say toxic?!" Dave asked his new team with increasing horror.

Ignoring Dave's concern, Chris turned to the other team. "And Team B, you are hereby dubbed the Mutant Maggots!" Their team logo- a three-eyed maggot with sharp teeth in red was displayed.

The newly dubbed Maggots did not seem excited by their team name either. Topher, who had been supportive of Chris thus far, was even disturbed by the name.

Adjusting her glasses, Scarlett interjected, "Um, not that the topic of toxic waste isn't fascinating, but why are the team names centered around that?"

Before anyone could answer her, a roar shook the area, making all of the new campers gasp in fright. As they looked around, they noticed deeper in the forest that several trees were getting knocked down, and each one that was knocked over was closer to their location than the last. Eventually, a nearby bush rustled, causing them all to tense up in preparation of being attacked. Amy prepared by holding her sister out in front of her like a shield.

Once the bush ceased to rattle, a tiny, pink, hairless rodent hopped out into the open.

"Uh… is that supposed to be a squirrel?" Rodney questioned out loud.

Several campers let out a squeak of shock and disgust as the hairless squirrel blinked, its eyelids blinking vertically instead of horizontally. "Oh poor thing, what's the matter with it?" Ella asked from off-screen.

"While we were gone, I rented the island out to a nice, family-oriented biohazardous waste disposal company," Chris told them all. As he explained, the camera showed off a group of toxic waste barrels surrounding a tree with a barrel jammed in its knothole. The barrel dripped waste onto the ground with every second. "Sweet people, but the waste is having a teensy bit of an impact on the flora and fauna." To prove his point, a butterfly passed in front of the squirrel, which promptly snatched it out of the air with its tongue like a frog catching a fly.

Ella visibly despaired at the unnatural occurrence while Sky frowned and Leonard smiled.

"How mystical," Leonard remarked, earning a strange look from Sky.

Beardo ventured close to the squirrel, and reached his hand out to pet it. In response, the squirrel roared in his face before its eyes turned red, and began to shoot lasers at his feet. For his part, Beardo jumped a foot in the air, letting out a scream and darting back to his team while accompanied by a cartoonish running sound effect. When Beardo fled, the rodent blew him a raspberry, and skittered back into the woods.

The camera then showed Beardo hiding behind Shawn, who had his arms raised and ready to defend himself. Off-screen nearby, Chris laughed. "Most danger ever!"

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

Beardo wiped sweat from his brow, and let out an audible "Phew!"

* * *

The attention returned to Chris on his ATV, holding his finger in the air. "Now, before we start our very first challenge of the season, let's give out some rewards. Jasmine, because you got up here before anyone else, your team gets a trampoline, and the Rats get a hacksaw."

Chef was shown bouncing on the trampoline, unenthusiastically showing off the prize while showing the Rats' prize in his hand. He let out a startled cry as he fell off the trampoline, dropping the hacksaw in the process. Sugar pointed a finger at him, laughing. The hacksaw then smacked her in the face.

"Dagnabbit, that hurt!" The pageant queen complained, rubbing her face with her hand. On the Maggots, Max laughed at her in turn, only to be run over by the trampoline being thrown at his team. He moaned in pain on the ground as nobody on the team moved to help him back up.

"What do these items have to do with this bomb?" Chris asked the camera, holding up a cube-shaped device with a detonator attached.

Rodney glanced down at Scarlett beside him. "He's not going to blow us up again, is he?"

"Won't I?" Chris rhetorically inquired, popping up between the two with the explosive in hand. Rodney instinctively recoiled while Scarlett carefully leaned away, taking on a curious expression as she stared at the explosive. "Find out when we come back!" The show faded to commercial.

* * *

When the show faded back in, two totem poles were shown hanging from a pair of thick, wide trees. The Rats' totem was on the left, and the Maggots' was on the right; the Maggots' totem also had an axe stuck in the bottom whereas the Rats' totem appeared to have nothing of the sort stuck in the same place. As the cameras panned downward to the ground, there was a sound of clapping.

"That was so good!" Topher cheered as he clapped. "A great cut to commercial break from the man himself."

"Thank you, Topher." Chris accepted the praise with a smile, and turned to address the challenge, holding his hand up in the direction of the totems. "Those are your team totems. You need to cut them down, and get them in the river, and ride them back to the campground. First team there gets their pick of the cabins, but hurry, the totems are rigged with bombs that will explode if you don't plant them in front of your cabin in seven minutes or less. Starting now." At those final two words, the detonator on the Rats' totem started to count down.

Already standing on a huge boulder next to the team's trampoline, Amy pumped her fist. "This will be easy! Just watch!" She jumped on the trampoline, but because of the angle she jumped from, she was sent flying into the river with a scream.

Meanwhile, Shawn picked up the hacksaw. "Leave this to me," he told his teammates as he shouldered it. "I'm an expert tree climber. I'll climb up and cut it down." Jumping up onto the tree's side, Shawn grunted as he began to climb. From down on the ground, Dave watched as he climbed. As he spotted Shawn, Sky walked over to him.

"While he does that, maybe we should come up with a backup plan in case his doesn't work," she suggested.

Dave smiled at her. "That is a great idea! I mean, the plan would have to make sure I don't get splinters or dirt all over my fingers, but yeah. We can do that." Sky gazed at him, not sure whether to smile or frown.

Back with the other team, Scarlett examined the trampoline. "Hm, this isn't going to suffice. At this angle, whoever jumps will not be in optimal position to grab and remove the axe from its wedge."

Scoffing, Max shoved his way past her. "Nonsense, it is perfectly evil as is. Watch!"

"I wouldn't recommend jumping with the current trajectory-" The redheaded genius tried to tell him, but before she could finish, Max jumped onto the trampoline.

Just as she suspected, he slammed right up into the base of the totem face first and nowhere near the ax. He fell down to trampoline, which bounced him back up, and caused him to slam into it with his back before falling again. The team watched in growing discomfort as Max repeatedly hit the trampoline and the totem back and forth. After a few more collisions, Rodney took matters into his own hands, and pulled the trampoline out from under Max before he could hit it again. Instead of bouncing on the trampoline once more, Max's face met the ground and his body fell flat against it.

* * *

(Confessional- Max)

The villain huffed as he folded his arms over his chest. "This is why minions do all the work, and not the evil masters themselves. Just look!" He held up one arm, and pointed to his elbow with his other hand. "I got a boo-boo!"

* * *

Shawn let out a scream as his grip slipped, and he fell back down to the ground. "Forget it, this tree isn't climbable. I never thought I'd meet a tree like this."

"Looks like we're going to need that backup plan after all," Sky spoke up, getting her team's attention. "Anyone got one?"

"I can get our totem pole down for us." Leonard stated confidently.

Dave glanced at him warily. "You can?"

"Wizards can do magic. He can magic the totem pole down. Do magic, Wizard." Sugar answered Dave, urging Leonard to prove himself.

Raising a stick wand, Leonard pointed it at the totem pole. "Totem pole: gravitatus downus!" Nothing happened to the pole. "Hm, let me try again, gravitatus downus!" He got the same results.

"Leonard, magic isn't real." Dave said to the wizard role-player.

"Magic is real if you believe it is." Ella said. "But if Leonard's powers aren't working, then perhaps I should call some bird friends if Shawn can't make it up there."

Sugar glared at Ella. "Of course the wizard's powers are working. Just give him a chance. Wizard, try again."

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

Sky sat with her hands resting in her lap, unsure of how to phrase her thoughts. "The team is… quirky, but nice." She started off before making her thoughts more assertive. "I know we can win challenges if we work together well enough."

* * *

"You better not mess this up, Samey!" Amy ordered to her sister as Sammy took a turn on the trampoline.

Sammy bounced up, and managed to grab onto the ax. "Got it!" She tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. "Um, now what do I do?"

"Just try to wedge it out or something, anything helps." Jasmine hollered up.

Amy made a noise of annoyance. "Ugh! Samey, you're useless!"

The outback explorer immediately rounded on her. "You hush up, and give her a chance. She's part of the team too."

"You say that like it's a good thing. She gets picked last at everything at school since she sucks," the mean twin answered flippantly. Jasmine narrowed her eyes at her.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"I don't like that girl, not one bit." She told the camera. Since she was so tall, she was hunched over as she sat on the outhouse toilet. "I think she's bad for the team, and as soon as we lose our first challenge, she should be the one voted off."

* * *

Sky stared at the tree, tapping her chin in thought, and then turned her attention to the totem, also taking that into consideration. She made a few shapes with her hands, and traced invisible lines with a finger. Nodding to herself, she faced her team. "Okay, I think I got an idea."

Sammy had somehow pulled herself up to the totem base, and pressed her feet against the underside, attempting to pull the ax out as if she was still on the ground. A chittering sound caught her attention, and she looked over to the tree, watching as a hairless squirrel, possibly the same one from earlier, scurried out onto the branch next to her height. She squeaked nervously, and let one hand go of the ax to wave at it. "Hi… don't mind me." The rodent roared in response, and she began to scream fearfully.

"Well, that's not good." Rodney stated the obvious, watching with Jasmine and Max. Amy lazily examined her nails, not caring about the danger her twin was in.

"Perhaps what we need is a little mayhem. Evil mayhem!" Max cackled, picking up a stone and chucking it at the squirrel.

The stone clonked the side of the squirrel's head. Infuriated, the squirrel's eyes turned red, and it began to shoot lasers down at the Maggots. Max yelped in fright, and started running away as his teammates ducked out of the way.

A flash cut over to the Rats, and it showed Sky taking a few steps back towards where Ella was standing. "Okay, ready?" She asked Beardo, who was standing near the tree. He gave her a thumbs-up and a 'Ding! Ding!' before kneeling down on one knee and cupping his hands to make a foothold. "Here goes!" She took the hacksaw from Ella, shouldering it, and sprinted towards Beardo. He leaned in as she placed one foot in his hands, and threw her upwards towards the tree over his shoulder. Sky somersaulted through the air, pressing her feet against the tree's trunk, and using it as a launching point up at the totem. She latched onto the totem, and clung to it tight. "I made it!"

Her team cheered down below and out of the camera's view.

While the Rats made progress, the Maggots continued to run around the site, screaming in terror. Topher made a show of covering his hair with his hands, and yelling out, "Not the hair!"

Up on the branch, the squirrel paused in attacking the campers, and gave a look to Sammy. The nice twin whimpered as it glared at her, and started shooting beams at her. "Please don't hurt me!" She pleaded, dodging the blasts until one hit the ax, bounced off, and cut through the rope holding up the totem. The totem fell, and landed on the ground with a thud. Sammy managed to get onto the base's side so she wouldn't be squished, and clung to it. "I-I got it…" She announced shakily.

Jasmine, Rodney, Scarlett, and Topher all cheered while Max showed an expression of indifference and Amy appeared downright annoyed.

"Let's move, Maggots!" Jasmine rallied the team.

Sky quickly scaled the Rats' totem, and soon reached the head. Taking the saw from her shoulder, she called out, "Look out below!" Quickly, she sawed through the rope, and the totem was soon free.

The team, except Sugar, cheered once the totem was on the ground.

"Hooray," Ella exclaimed, clasping her hands to her cheek sweetly. "We did it!"

Sugar snorted, folding her arms in front of her and rolling her eyes. "The wizard could've done that if ya let him."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

The conspiracy theorist sat on the toilet, entirely serious. "That tree was hard to climb. If I was in the zombie apocalypse and had to climb that tree to safety, I'd have probably been zombie chow. I'll have to add really thick trees like that one to my apocalypse training regime."

* * *

When the focus returned to the challenge, the camera showed the river the totems were to float down on. Soon enough, the Maggots cruised down the river on their totem. Jasmine, as the unofficial team leader, took the front, and was followed by Sammy, Amy, Topher, Rodney, Scarlett, and Max. They all cheered as they went downstream. Their cheers faded out, and were replaced by the cheers of the Rats. Beardo sat in front, followed by Sky, Dave, Ella, Shawn, Sugar, and Leonard as they passed the camera's view.

Sammy looked back at the other team, her eyes wide with worry. "They're gaining on us!"

Amy snorted derisively. "What else is new, Samey? The sky is blue?"

"Um, guys, we might have a little problem." Rodney pointed ahead. The viewpoint changed to the team's of what was in front of them. They were headed towards a waterfall.

"What? A waterfall?" Jasmine questioned out loud as the camera passed over each team member's scared looks.

Topher was apparently the only one unafraid as he smiled. "Oh, so that's why Chris wanted us to ride these down the river. Great challenge layout!"

The Maggots let out hollers as they flew over the waterfall's edge, and down into the trees below. They crashed through branches, and eventually landed on a hill their totem continued to slide down on. In the process of landing, their totem bounced a bit, causing Max to fumble out of his seat.

"Ah! Help! Evil genius about to go overboard here!" He shouted as he whipped behind the totem pole like a flag.

Scarlett twisted around, and took his arm, pulling him back on. "Hang on, I've got you." She helped him settle back on, and told him, "Try to keep a firmer grip next time."

"Thank you," Max replied, tightening his grip like Scarlett suggested. "You know, you'd make a good sidekick."

She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if she heard correctly. "Pardon?"

Back up at the top of the waterfall, the Rats and their pole flew over the edge the same way that the Maggots did. Again, branches were snapped, but when they were next seen, their totem was firmly on the hill and sliding down. They all cheered at their relative safety. Standing up so she could see over Beardo's afro, Sky soon sat back down.

"The other team is still ahead of us. We need to speed up. Lean forward!" She commanded, and the team complied, each person leaning in closer to the next. Dave seemed pretty enthusiastic about leaning in close to Sky, and Sugar gave a little smile as Leonard leaned into her. As the team began to speed up, Beardo trumpeted a charge.

Just as Sky planned, the Rats became faster, and soon passed the Maggots.

"And it looks like the Rats have made a comeback," Topher narrated, though a bit worried. "Can the Maggots make a comeback of their own?"

Down at the campgrounds, Chris and Chef relaxed in lawn chairs. Behind them was one of the cabins from the first season on the right, and a newer, bigger, and fancier cabin to the left.

Chris reclined in his chair while Chef read a book. "Ah," he sighed contently, "feels good to be back."

Right as he finished that thought, Owen ran up to the two of them, panting. "Hey, Chris! Get this, the boat wouldn't stop!"

"Oh look," Chris said to the viewers at home, "it's former player Owen, who's not competing this year."

"Yeah, so I swam back to tell you," Owen continued to explain until the implications of Chris' words caught up to him. He clutched the sides of his head in shock. "What?! Not competing?!"

Chris nodded. "I'm afraid you and the other classic players have outlived your usefulness. Chef!" He snapped his fingers.

Chef slapped one of the explosive devices from earlier onto Owen's face. As it beeped ominously, Owen panicked, and ran off while screaming. As soon as he was far enough away, Chris took out a remote, and pressed the button on it.

The view switched to the Thousand-Foot-High Cliff, at the base of which a small explosion rang out, and Owen could be seen flying through the distance as a trail of smoke arcing over it.

Back at the campgrounds, the host and his cook shared a laugh at Owen's expense. Their laughter quieted when they heard more voices, and turned their heads in the direction they seemed to be coming from.

At the bottom of the hill, the Rats came zipping down, and soared off a small ledge. They cheered as they came to a stop near the two men.

"That was amazin'! Let's do that again!" Sugar gleefully shouted, throwing her hands in the air.

"Tick tock!" Chris reminded them.

The timer on the Rats' totem was under fifteen seconds, and quickly approaching ten.

"Quick, grab the good cabin!" Dave shouted, his panic increasing.

The team lifted up their totem as one, and carried it over to a stump sitting in the middle of camp. As they set it on the stump, the countdown timer stopped, flashing at one second to spare. Seeing as their totem did not explode, the team saw reason to start cheering, believing they had won the challenge. They stopped cheering, however, when they heard the cries of the other team.

Like the Rats, the Maggots came down to the bottom of the hill, and flew off the same ledge they did, only they lost control of their totem and fell off of it. The totem itself crashed into the good cabin that the Rats had just claimed, and exploded as the timer ran out, taking the cabin with it. Chunks of wood rained down as there was nothing left standing of the cabin itself.

The Rats stared at the remains, flabbergasted that had just happened.

Chris shook his head as he and Chef walked over to them. "Too bad," he said to them, "it had an eight-person hot tub and air conditioning."

The team groaned at the loss of their new cabin and its amenities. One of them brightened up quickly, though.

"No worries, brethren," Leonard proclaimed, taking out his wand again. "I can just cast a fixing spell, and make the cabin fix itself." He waved the wand around, chanting, "Wibbly-wobbly woo, put this shelter back together like brand new!" Nothing happened and he frowned, looking down at his wand. "Why isn't this working? It worked back home. There must be some non-believers blocking my magical energy." As he mused, he failed to notice the irritated scowl he was getting from Dave, the skeptical frowns from Sky and Shawn, the blank stare from Beardo, and the genuine interest from Ella and Sugar.

"Regardless," Chris said with a smile, clearly enjoying with Chef the attention Leonard was getting from his team. "As the only team with a cabin still standing, the Mutant Maggots win the first challenge!" He shot finger pistols at the winning team, and the camera zoomed out to show the team recovering from their crash. They weakly cheered in response, still in pain.

"Where are we supposed to sleep?" Sky inquired, walking up to Chris.

The host held up a hand. "No worries, we have a backup cabin for you. It's as every bit of nice as the one you lost."

Sharply contrasting what they were told by Chris, a helicopter flew over the campgrounds and dropped a cabin identical to the remaining one in the place the other, nicer cabin once stood. The Rats groaned in disgust at their new cabin.

Sky shrugged uncertainly. "It's better than nothing, I guess…"

"Team Rat, I'll see you at the first campfire ceremony of the season." Chris informed the team, drawing their attention away from their new abode. He concluded the instructions with a high-five he shared with Chef, both of them lightly laughing at the campers' misfortune.

* * *

Later that night at the bonfire ceremony, the Toxic Rats were already gathered. Dave opted to sit in the front row next to the campfire with Sky, and Beardo sat next to them. Shawn also sat in the front row, but a stump separated him from Beardo. In the back row, Leonard sat in the middle with Ella and Sugar on either side of him. Chris stood at his oil drum podium, a plate of marshmallows sitting on top of it.

Chris announced, "The votes have been cast. Those who receive a regular marshmallow can stay, but this season, one person will receive a very special marshmallow- a marshmallow you do not want to eat." At that point, Chef walked up to the bonfire, wearing a hazmat suit and holding a metal box. He opened the box to reveal a glowing, green marshmallow. "Whoever receives the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom is out of the game, which means they cannot come back. Ever!" Chris proceeded to pick up a marshmallow. "The following players are safe- Sky!"

Sky happily caught a marshmallow, and Dave smiled in support.

"Beardo!" The hairy teen cupped his hands, and caught the marshmallow.

"Shawn!" Though not really interested in the marshmallow, Shawn caught it anyway.

"Sugar!" She happily caught the marshmallow with one hand, and immediately stuffed it in her mouth.

"Ella!" Sugar frowned at Ella as the fairytale princess received her treat.

Leonard and Dave, the only two team members without a marshmallow, tensed up as they realized their position. Only one marshmallow remained on Chris' plate and the other was a marshmallow that symbolized their elimination.

"And the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom goes to…" the host began to announce. Dave started to sweat, causing him to grimace and quickly take out his hand sanitizer. Behind him, Leonard clenched his eyes and fists shut while whisper-chanting "Don't pick me, don't pick me." Using tongs, Chef plucked the glowing marshmallow out of its box. "Leonard!"

Dave exhaled a sigh of relief, and Sugar stood up, raising a hand to her forehead.

"No!" She cried dramatically, falling in front of Leonard.

"Leonard, pack your potions," Chris said as Chef lobbed the glowing marshmallow in Leonard's direction.

"Me?!" Leonard cried out, briefly shrieking as he dodged the marshmallow. The marshmallow sizzled as it sunk into the ground behind the stump seats. Everyone was quick to distance themselves from the spot. "This can't be!" He raised his arms, and closed his eyes, concentrating. "Magic moats and armpit smells, bring forth a time-reversal spell!"

Some footsteps sounded as feet marched toward him. One arm was seized by the gloved hand of Chef Hatchet, and the role-player was tugged off-screen.

Chef marched over to Chris with Leonard slung over one shoulder.

"Nothing? So weird," Chris joked. "Don't worry, Leonard. I think I've got something that fits your era. You'll love it."

A flip transition switched the scene to the Dock of Shame, where a giant, wooden catapult stood. Leonard was sitting in the bucket of the device while Chris and Chef, now out of his hazmat suit, stood off to the side.

"Say hello to the Hurl of Shame, patent pending." Chris introduced.

"You know what? You're right. I do love it," Leonard spoke up, patting the rim of the bucket. "It reminds me of the catapults back home."

As Chris walked around to the lever of the catapult, Sugar ran up to Leonard. "I love you, Wizard!"

Leonard smiled at her. "I'll miss you too, fair mai-deeeeeennnnn!" The catapult flung him into the night sky, and his voice faded with distance.

Chris smirked at Leonard's exit and Sugar's sadness at Leonard being gone. Chuckling he told the camera, "One down, thirteen to go! Who's next in line? Find out next time right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

As Chris did his outro, the last scene on camera was a view of the island against the night sky.

Fade to credits

* * *

 **Leonard- 14th Place**

 **And thus begins Cast Swap. I came up with the idea back in 2015 when I was still fresh from Pahkitew Island. I had drafted the original elimination order, but I had some favoritism issues. The idea eventually fell into the back of my mind, and only recently came to the forefront again. Looking over my original drafts, I knew I had to make tweaks, and made them. Leonard was not one of those tweaks. Sorry, Leonard fans. If you want a story where Leonard is not out first, check out my friend Fangren and their 'Total Shuffled' series. They are a fantastic writer, and comes up with the best twists in their take on a shuffled cast.**

 **If a review could be left in the box below, that would be great. Reviews are awesome!**


	2. TDRI Episode 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 2- Truth or Mutant Shark

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, fourteen new campers were blown away by this year's challenges. They were treated to an early morning swim, said hello to the island's wildlife, and did some totem surfing. Explosive!" Chris narrated as the episode's opener played clips of the previous episode. In the end, Leonard's team got annoyed with his non-existent magic, and got sent packing Hurl of Shame style." The clips ended on Leonard being shot out of the catapult, and Sugar in attendance of the event. A flash transitioned to Chris at the present on the dock. "Who will be going home next, and how much pain can I put them through first? Find out right now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

The sky was tinted orange with early morning sun, and birds could be heard tweeting. The camera zoomed out to display both cabins, and a voice was heard vocalizing in harmony with the bird tweets.

"Very good," Ella's voice said after the vocalizing and tweeting ended. The scene shifted to inside the girls' side of the Rats cabin. Ella sat on the top bunk of the left hand side of the room, a little blue bird perched on her outstretched finger. "Now, let's try a pitch lower." She then vocalized the same tune as she did previously, but slightly lower. The bird attempted to join in, half-succeeding and half-failing at lowering its pitch.

Across the room, Sugar slept on the bottom bunk of a set of beds, and she had a sleeping mask over her eyes. Her face visibly twitched at Ella and the bird's practice, and after listening to it for a few more seconds, she sat upright. "Would you shut yer trap?! I'm trying to get mah beauty sleep over here!"

Ella stopped vocalizing, as did the bird, and they both looked over to her. "Oh, my apologies. I didn't realize I was disturbing you. You appeared to be sleeping fine a little bit ago so I thought it was alright."

"Well, it's not! I get up pretty early back on the farm, and even I know it's too early for that noise!" The pageant queen snapped, pointing absently in Ella's direction.

"Again, my apologies. I'll stop," Ella reiterated sincerely. The bird left her finger, and started flying to the cabin door.

Sky, already dressed for the day, entered the cabin and allowed the bird to fly out before letting it close. She seemed puzzled by a bird being in the cabin.

Huffing, Sugar slumped back into her pillow. "Stupid goody-goody…" She mumbled, shifting onto her side as she attempted to get back to sleep.

* * *

In the boys' side of the cabin, only Beardo appeared to be asleep in bed on the bottom-right bunk. He snored as he slept, and made several different noises as he slept such as a gym coach's whistle, a piano key being played, and an elephant trumpet. He was startled from his slumber after the last one when the door to the cabin slammed. The human soundboard made a sound of exclamation that sounded eerily like the exclamation point from Metal Gear, his eyes snapping open and looking towards the door.

Dave stood in front of the closed cabin door, his back pressed against it and his arms outstretched as if he was trying to prevent someone from getting into the cabin. His hair was disheveled, some dirt seemed to be on his face, and his sweater vest was half-untucked. He stood there, panting heavily.

Beardo made a noise of inquiry.

"What was I doing? I was, uh, looking for the immunity idol. Yeah, that's it." Dave answered rather nervously as his heart rate went down. Alarmed, Beardo jumped out of bed, looking at Dave with shock. "Before you ask, no, I did not find it. Something… got in my way."

The scene flashed to Dave a little earlier in the morning, where he was being chased by a big, wooly beaver that seemed to have grown spikes into its back and an extra tail. Dave screamed as he ran, and the beaver growled as it gave chase.

Returning to the present, Dave sighed as he folded his arms over his chest. "Guess that bush was a no-go for a hiding spot." He noticed Beardo giving him a look. "Don't give me that look, you'd try and look for it too. Given how we tanked yesterday, it might not hurt to have a little extra insurance, and trust me, I know about insurance."

* * *

(Confessional-Dave)

In Dave's confessional, he appeared to have cleaned up. Dirt was no longer on his face, his vest was tucked in, and his hair was perfectly combed. "Okay, I lied. I wasn't really looking for the idol. I was actually trying to impress that girl on my team, Sky. She rocked the challenge yesterday, and since she seems to be the athletic type, I figured she'd go out and do a morning run. I thought maybe if I woke up early and did a morning run too, we'd pass each other and she'd be impressed with me. Since we didn't pass each other, I think it's safe to say that failed."

* * *

After Dave's confessional concluded, the focus returned to the cabins. This time, the camera zoomed in on the Maggots' cabin as a shout of "Samey!" was heard.

In the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin, Amy appeared to be digging through her luggage. "Where's your hair dryer? I can't find mine, and I need it."

Sitting on her bunk, the lower left-hand side one, Sammy shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but I can't find mine either."

"Chris most likely confiscated them along with everything else electronic everyone may have brought," Scarlett proposed, walking over to the twins from the right side of the room. "I had a very sophisticated calculator in my luggage that appears to be missing as well."

"First these crappy beds, and now Chris takes our stuff? I hate this camp!" Amy raged, standing up and stomping a boot on the floor.

* * *

The camera panned from the left side of the Maggots' cabin to the right. Inside the boys' side, all three males slept in their beds. Rodney slept on the bottom left bunk, Max slept on the bottom right bunk, and Topher had the top bunk above Max. Given Rodney's large shape, the bunk was almost comically tiny in comparison to him.

"Hnn," Rodney mumbled in his sleep as the camera focused on him. "Mary… Daisy… Hannah… Bonnie… Rebecca… Destiny…"

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

Hunched over in the outhouse, Rodney leaned in towards the camera, confessing, "The bed was pretty small. I was afraid I might break it halfway through the night. If I do, I'll just sleep on the floor. That has more room."

* * *

Up on a tree branch in a tree somewhere, Shawn awoke with a yawn, and stretched his arms. Briefly scratching his back, he swung a leg over, and dropped down from his perch. Down on the ground, Jasmine knelt on one knee as she inspected the leaves on a plant. Shawn's landing made her jump, and she whirled around, coming face to face with him.

"Aaah!" Jasmine screamed, caught off-guard.

"AAAAHH!" Shawn screeched right back in surprise.

"What're you doing out here?!" They asked each other, pointing at each other at the same time. They fell silent, staring at each other.

"I," Jasmine started to say hesitantly as she gestured to the plant she was examining, "was just looking at the local plants. Considering what we saw yesterday with that squirrel, I thought it might not hurt to do some poking around. You?"

"I just woke up," he answered, jabbing his thumb upward. "I slept up there."

Jasmine followed his thumb, and spotted the branch Shawn had slept on. "You sleep in trees too?"

Shawn nodded, "Yeah, if I sleep indoors, I might get attacked by a zombie in the middle of the night. Zombies can't climb so- wait, too?" He raised an eyebrow, glancing at her. "You sleep in trees?"

"Yeah, the beds in the cabin were too small for my tastes so I slept out here. That's my post over there," Jasmine pointed at a tree not too far away. Shawn could barely see a length of rope wrapped around one of the branches.

The conspiracy theorist let out a laugh. "I thought I was the only one here that slept in trees."

Jasmine let out a chuckle of her own. "I guess not. Survival types like us think alike, huh?"

"I suppose so," Shawn smiled.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

Jasmine continued to laugh in the outhouse. "Not only is the guy cute," she said after finally getting a handle on her laughter, "he's kinda hilarious." She began to snicker again, "Zombies…"

* * *

A seagull slept soundly in a nest inside one of the camp's loudspeakers. Its peaceful slumber came to a stop when the loudspeaker turned on, emitting a loud squeal of static. The seagull jumped out, a noticeably bizarre tail at its rear, orange and scaly with a rattle at the end.

Chris rode up to the cabins on his ATV. "Up and at 'em my morning glories, it's time for today's challenge!" He declared, the viewpoint shifting around him to show the two gathered teams.

"What, already? I haven't even had two helpings of breakfast yet!" Sugar protested in shock, grabbing at her chubby belly.

"Forget about your petty needs," Max scoffed. He then pointed to his back. "That terrible sleep last night has left my spine uncomfortably bent!"

Rodney perked up with a smile, taking Max into his arms. "Let me help you with that!" He briefly squeezed Max, and soon enough, he heard a crack.

Max yelped as Rodney squeezed him and dropped him on his rear. "Confound it, fool! You could've killed me…" The wannabe villain complained when he started feeling much better. "Huh, my spine is cured. Thank you, minion."

"You're welcome." The country boy replied, missing Max's last remark. "Wait, what?"

"You can eat after the challenge," Chris informed them. He then pointed with both arms off in a direction. "Right this way to the Bay of Dismay."

Most of the campers, except for Ella and Topher, groaned in complaint.

"Alright, the Bay of Dismay!" Topher enthused. "Sounds interesting."

Ella clasped her hands together. "Oh, I agree. I love bays."

"That's the spirit," Chris grinned, giving them both finger pistols. "Come on, your humiliation awaits."

* * *

The two teams walked through the woods towards the challenge site in mixed little groups even though they were on different teams. Amy and Sammy led the pack, Jasmine was with Shawn, Dave was with Sky and Beardo, Max was walking beside Scarlett, Rodney and Topher were behind them, leaving Sugar at the back with Ella.

"Bay of Dismay… you think that sounds like it'll be a physical challenge?" Sky wondered out loud.

Dave smiled at her. "I hope so. If you rock this one as great as yesterday, we have it in the bag," he told her confidently and then hesitated, "er, barring any unforeseen circumstances like yesterday."

Panning to the right, the focus landed on the twins. Having overheard Dave, Amy smirked before turning her attention to her sister.

"Speaking of unforeseen circumstances," she began to say. "You sure are lucky that they lost the challenge yesterday. If we had lost, you'd have been gone for sure."

"We don't know that," Sammy countered, uncertain of herself. "And we never will know because we can't reverse the clock."

Amy scowled at Sammy's answer. She scoffed, "We don't need to reverse a clock to know you're a loser. Losers always get voted off first, and the first time we lose a challenge, you'll be the first one voted off the team, just like that nerd from the other team." Quickening her pace, Amy went on ahead, leaving Sammy behind.

Sammy frowned, looking down to her feet. Shortly after Amy's departure, Jasmine came up to match pace with her, glaring at the back of the mean twin's head. "Hey," the Outback explorer got her attention, "don't listen to a thing she says. You're not a loser. You're an underdog. Underdogs have a lot of fight in them."

"You think so?" Sammy asked timidly.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Jasmine is really nice. While I was stuck up on the totem yesterday, I heard her defending me against Amy. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me, and we've only known each other for less than a day."

* * *

"O-Okay, I'll try!" Sammy promised, a meek smile on her face in response to Jasmine's sincere one. The focus panned left all the way to the back of the pack where Ella and Sugar were.

" _We're walking towards a bay and when we arrive I'm sure we won't know what to say. We don't know what we're going to do, but we don't want a second loss in a roooow."_ Ella sang as she walked, her arms outstretched for pizazz.

"I know what I'm going to say," Sugar hissed venomously before turning to look Ella in the eye, "Shut your face!" Swiftly, Sugar turned around and continued to head towards the Bay of Dismay.

"Gosh, she must still be mad about this morning." Ella murmured as she watched Sugar stomp away furiously before running to catch up with everyone.

* * *

Out in the water, three structures stood. In the middle was a platform Chris was standing on, along with a video monitor and scoreboard on top. On either side of the host's platform were two rows of gallery seats with red buttons situated in front of the contestants. On the left side of Chris' platform were the Toxic Rats, and on the right, the Mutant Maggots.

"Welcome to the Getting-to-Know-You Trivia Game Challenge!" Chris declared grandly from his platform.

Topher leaned in his seat eagerly. "Hey, your Total Drama Action tuxedo! It looks more amazing in person, Chris!" Topher sat on the upper left corner of his team's seats, Rodney to his right, and Amy and Sammy furthest right. In the row below, Jasmine sat in front of the twins with Scarlett to her left, and Max in the bottom left corner below Topher and Rodney.

Chris gave a little bow in the Maggots' direction, saying, "Thank you, Topher!" The host stood upright, and asked, "Everyone nice and snug?"

"Um, Chris, can I get a bigger harness?" Rodney spoke up, his hands pulling at the harness on his body. "I think mine is a little too small. It's digging into my shoulders."

Chris only laughed at Rodney's torment. "That's what you get with children size harnesses. I'll be asking our players embarrassing questions, and I mean majorly humiliating. If the player I'm talking about owns up and hits the poorly-wired buzzer and owns their humiliation before time runs out, their team gets a point. First team to five wins part one and a distinct advantage in part two." He explained, and then held up a finger. "But, if no one owns up, this happens." Pulling a remote out of his back pocket, he pressed the single button on it.

The Mutant Maggots' seats sunk under the water, forcing them all to hold their breath. While under, Max spotted something that scared him into releasing his breath. In front of the team's seats was the same legged shark from the season's opening theme. The shark barred its teeth, frightening the whole team. He opened his mouth, and moved to take a bite when the seats rose up out of the water. Sputtering, the team coughed out the water they had accidentally inhaled.

"There's, like, some freaky shark thing down there!" Amy shrieked at Chris.

"You mean Fang?" Chris inquired, and then let out a chuckle. He pointed up to the monitor above him. "Yeah, turns out toxic waste can affect stuff underwater too. Who knew?" The monitor showed a normal shark sitting in the water, somehow enjoying a cup of tea, and then the image shifted to an image of Fang as he was now.

"That's… really messed up," Shawn commented. Shawn sat in the middle of the back row of his team's seats. To the left of Shawn sat Beardo, and on his right was Dave. The girls all sat in the front row, Sugar on the far right, Sky in the middle, and Ella on the left.

Going on as if Shawn hadn't spoken, Chris explained, "Anywho, when a team gets dunked, their opponents can steal by guessing which dunk-ee is guilty. Guess right, and you get a point. Guess wrong, and this happens." Chris once more pressed the button on his remote, only this time the Rats were the ones to go down.

Down below, Fang managed to tie a bib around his neck. He noticed the Rats descending behind him, and turned to face them. Not wasting any time, he opened his mouth, causing the team to gasp.

Bubbles formed on the water's surface, and Chris stood on his platform, smugly awaiting the correct moment to bring them back up. After a moment, he pressed the button, and the team rose out of the water, them and their seats appearing wet but unharmed.

"Now that we understand the rules, let's start the game!" The host declared, pulling out a card from behind his back. "To the rats, now listen carefully- 'Who does this when they're nervous, or likes a boy?'" Chris pointed up to the monitor, which played a burping sound effect.

Everyone except Sky and Ella laughed at the sound. Whereas Ella appeared to not laugh out of concern, Sky did not laugh out of embarrassment as her cheeks turned red. "Who told you that?" She demanded to Chris as she reluctantly pressed the buzzer in front of her. "Ow!" Ella gasped at Sky's pain, and above Sky, Dave abruptly stopped laughing when he learned whose secret that was.

The scoreboard dinged as the Rats gained their first point.

"Who becomes a flustered mess when it comes to girls?" Chris went on, turning to the Maggots for their question.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "First Sky's thing about liking guys, and now embarrassing someone who has difficulty talking to girls? Is he trying to make romantic tension?"

Topher kicked back in his seat with his legs up on the counter and his hands behind his head, waiting for someone to own up. Scarlett disinterestedly examined her fingernails. Glancing over her team, Jasmine noticed that out of all of them, Rodney was the most nervous.

"Looks like that's you big guy, just bark it out," she advised.

Reluctantly, Rodney slouched in his seat, and sighed as he pressed the button. "Ow! Okay, yeah, it's me…"

No one really laughed at Rodney, except Sugar, who snorted and began a full-out laugh. After a few seconds, she noticed the stares she was getting from her teammates. "That was about somethin' else," she quickly lied.

"And it's one all," Chris announced as the scoreboard added a point to the Maggots' side. The Maggots cheered, except Rodney, who tried to shrink into his seat.

"Thanks for doing that, Rodney. That was really brave of you," Sammy thanked him gently.

Amy rolled her eyes at her sister's kindness, and patted the country boy on the arm. "Yeah, same or whatever."

At Amy's touch, Rodney suddenly became more alert, and he took to staring at her with starry eyes. In his eyes, hearts and cherubs surrounded Amy, who looked at him with a confused expression on her face. He began to blush and babble.

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

Rodney was curled up on the outhouse toilet, his feet against the wall, and staring into bliss. "She thinks I'm brave. She admires me, and now I admire her…"

* * *

"Rats," Chris began the next question, "who got banned from their local mall?"

Dave's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Banned from the mall? Seriously? Who here would get themselves banned from a mall?"

No one said anything. Beardo thought of a potential answer, and glanced down below him at Sugar, who answered with a dirty glance for the assumption. Shawn shrugged, not really caring; Sky tapped her chin in thought. On the end, Ella twiddled with her fingers, gazing at the button. Resigning herself, Ella reached out, and pressed the button. "Ouch, that stung!" She cried, cradling her hand.

"Correct, it's Ella!" Chris affirmed, causing the other Rats to gasp. "Though, I would've appreciated more of a response."

"No explanation would justify my actions. That is why I'm willing to accept the judgment of my peers," Ella stated, closing her eyes as if she was waiting for her doom.

"Cute, but I don't care. So as a quick punishment," Chris replied, holding up his remote and pressing the button.

The Rats disappeared under the water, holding their breath. While under, Sugar's makeup began to run. She touched her finger to her face, and noticed this when she pulled the finger away. Looking up from her finger, she only had a second to react to Fang chomping his jaws down around her. The seats rose up as Fang licked his chops. His mouth bulged surprisingly, and was then forced open by Sugar herself. She gave him a poke in the eyes, and swam up to the surface.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

She stood in the confessional, her arms crossed and something white poking from her butt. The pageant queen scoffed, shaking her head. "If he thinks he can turn me into his late breakfast, he's got another thing comin'!" Confusion taking over her scowl, Sugar reached behind her, and yanked the white object out, revealing it as a big tooth. "Whoa, that's a big tooth! What's this from?"

* * *

(Confessional- Fang)

The shark used a mirror to look at the gap in his teeth. Clearly unhappy, he growled, and snapped the mirror in half.

* * *

Back at the challenge, Sugar clambered back into her seat. The pageant queen touched her finger to her face again, and examined her running makeup. "Well, shoot! All this dunking is making my makeup run! I can't do this challenge if my makeup is running. Can we take a break so I can re-apply?" She asked Chris.

"That's a good point," Amy agreed from the Maggots' side, drawing all eyes on her, including Rodney's lovestruck gaze. "Unlike this hideous monster over here," she jabbed her thumb at her sister sitting next to her, "make-up actually looks good on me."

"Hey, speaking of makeup," Topher spoke up from the other end while raising a hand. "Chris, can we talk about your crow's feet?" Topher pointed to Chris.

"Crow's feet?!" Chris repeated, visibly becoming uneasy. "Hey, listen this-"

Dave unbuckled his harness, and stood up. "You know what? I'm all for taking a break. In fact, how about we just skip this challenge, huh? I certainly don't feel comfortable having my secrets brought up."

"But how are we supposed to win if you leave?" Sky questioned, twisting around to look up at him.

"Hah, like you were going to win to begin with!" Max sneered, cackling. His cackling abruptly ceased the moment Fang jumped out of the water, and took a bite out of the Maggots' seats. The wannabe villain screamed, and jumped into a surprised Scarlett's arms while the rest of the team panicked at the sight of Fang causing damage.

Seeing the damage to the Maggots' seats, Shawn yelped while unbuckling his harness. "Okay, that's my cue to get out of here!" Beside him, Beardo began wailing an alarm siren.

Jasmine started to argue with Amy, and Sammy attempted to interject. Scarlett, no longer surprised and rather downright annoyed, dropped Max onto the floor; Topher continued to try and bring attention to Chris' appearance; and Rodney stared at Amy lovingly. Beardo continued making noises, prompting Dave to tell him to shut up; Ella attempted to reason with Sugar, causing the pageant queen to yell at her while Sky tried to keep the peace.

Livid by this point, Chris straightened his back, and shouted, "Alright, shut it!" The shout seemed to bring all conflict to a halt. "Thanks to that pathetic digression, we don't have time to finish this challenge. Happy?" He told them all sternly.

The Rats all voiced their agreement, though Ella's was the only hesitant voice among them.

The Maggots also agreed, but several of them were half-hearted about it due to being distracted by other things.

"Well, you won't be happy for long. Come back after the break for an all-new challenge, from which there is no escape!" Chris declared to the camera. "And in the meantime…" Holding up his remote, he pressed it, and both sets of seats sunk down into the water with yelps of fright from the campers. The show faded to black.

* * *

When the show returned, there was a brief shot of the trees before returning to the group of campers all dried and walking through the forest in their teams instead of as one big group like before. In the time unseen, Sugar had a chance to redo her makeup, making it look as if she was never wet in the first place, and her makeup never ran.

"I'm glad that the challenge ended early," Sammy told Jasmine as she walked with her at the front of the team. "It would've been awful for Chris to ask me an embarrassing question."

"Oh, you mean like how you still suck your thumb in your sleep? That wouldn't matter. Everyone here knows you're already a baby, anyway." Amy spoke up from behind, a smirk on her face. Topher, Max, and Rodney all laughed while Scarlett only smirked.

"Um," Sammy spoke up amidst the laughter, "that's not one of my secrets. That's one of yours."

Sammy leaned close to Jasmine, and Jasmine bended over so Sammy could whisper to her. "Just so we're clear, she's the one that still sucks her thumb while sleeping." Jasmine nodded in understanding, smiling.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Thumb sucking is definitely Amy's thing," Sammy said in the outhouse. "She likes to dump all of her secrets on me to make herself look perfect and make me look like a mess. For example, did you know she always makes me pay when we go to the movies?"

* * *

(Confessional- Amy)

Amy scowled, sitting in the confessional. "After I was born, Mommy and I had to wait seventeen minutes for Samey to come out. Can you imagine? If I could've walked, I would've left without her."

* * *

As the Rats continued to their next destination, Dave and Sky held back.

"Sorry Chris embarrassed you like that, it wasn't cool," Dave told the gymnast.

Sky sighed, "No, it wasn't. Ugh, it's so gross." She held her face in her hands.

Dave quickly held up his hands. "Hey, hey, it's okay. It's actually kind of cute."

Sky paused, and then lifted her face out of her hands. "Really?"

The normal guy smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, yeah. Everyone has a tic or something that happens when they do something. Burping when you're nervous is just another one of those tics."

"I never thought of it like that. The way you put it, it sounds so… normal."

Dave chuckled a little. "Hey, in a place like this, a little normal is good."

Giggling, Sky smiled at him, beginning to blush.

Ahead of the two, Ella watched over her shoulder, a bright grin on her face. She turned to Shawn. "Isn't that beautiful? He's making her feel better about herself."

Not even looking back to see what Ella was talking about, Shawn raised an eyebrow. "Um, sure, if you say so."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Relationships are nothing but trouble," he stated. "When you start caring about someone more than yourself, you aren't preserving yourself, and self-preservation is important when it comes to the zombie apocalypse. While I'm on this island, you won't see me hooking up with a chick."

* * *

"Welcome, players!" Chris' voice boomed over the loudspeakers as the two teams arrived in a muddy area. "It's time for part two of today's challenge- The Mad Skills Obstacle Course!" The viewers were then shown a giant boot mechanism above a wooden platform. "The relay race begins with a mad dash from the Kick Start. Forget coffee, this baby doesn't get you going, nothing will." The giant boot made a few practice kicks before the scene switched to a section of cannons mounted around another platform. "Then it's a race against time that is the Cannonball Run." The cannons fired off a round of shots, creating holes in the platform. "Over to my personal fave, Wrecking Ball Alley, hurts so good!" To prove his point, a wrecking ball swung over the rotating logs the camera panned across. "And moving on, we head to the Gangplank, complete with rabid mutant beavers!" A series of high posts were shown, and then the beavers in question were shown gnawing through the supports. "Followed by the bouncy agony of Double Trouble, and finally the Grand Slam, where you'll use ropes to swing into the giant baseball mitt while avoiding those deadly bats!" Last shown were a series of red bulbs vaguely resembling butts pumping up and down, and then a giant baseball glove surrounded by large baseball bats standing in the mud. A bird slammed into one of the bats, and fell to the ground unconscious.

"Piece of cake!" Chris laughed as the campers hesitantly looked at each other. "Oh, and as you may remember, I said the winning team from part one would have a distinct advantage in part two."

"But there was no winner," Jasmine pointed out.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"There was no winner!" Sugar called out.

Unamused by Sugar's antics, Chris continued as if she hadn't spoken. "The losing team was going to wear snazzy specs while competing, but since we never actually finished the competition. I've decided everybody has to wear them."

Chef walked up with a box full of green glasses, and Scarlett, the only member of the cast wearing glasses, took out a pair. She took off her glasses, and put on the new ones.

"Interesting," she hummed as the vision behind the glasses was quite blurry. "The lenses of the glasses appear to have been deliberately made to decrease the wearer's eyesight levels regardless of conditions."

"Dorktacular goggles won't make part two easy, or attractive, but it can be done in theory," quipped Chris. The contestants all groaned at this.

Topher noticed the obstacle course, taking count the number of obstacles, and raised his hand. "Hey, Chris? There's only six obstacles, and we have seven people."

"Already thought of," Chris assured him, and pointed, "Competitors, take your positions!"

* * *

Beardo and Topher stood at the Kick Start section, Beardo already having his glasses on while Topher skeptically inspected them before putting them on himself. "First up at the Kick Start, it's Beardo versus Topher." Scarlett and Ella both had their glasses on, and were reaching their arms out to feel around since everything was so blurry in their vision. "Then it's Ella versus Scarlett versus the cannonballs." Jasmine smiled at Shawn, though he did not smile back, instead trying to see through his glasses. "Shawn faces Jasmine in Wrecking Ball Alley." Up at the beginning point of the Gangplank, Rodney stood still, trying not to fall from the high point, and Sugar sat on the edge, kicking her legs absentmindedly. "Sugar is up against Rodney at the Gangplank." Max scowled and Sky appeared hesitant as the camera showed them stationed at Double Trouble. "Sky and Max battle Double Trouble." Dave, Amy, and Sammy stood at the last station, and like Scarlett and Ella, Dave was reaching his hands out to try and find where stuff was. "And Dave will fight Amy and Samey for the Grand Slam. First team to finish wins the whole shebang, and the other team loses a member tonight.

"Since it's a relay race, you'll need something to pass- your mascots!" announced Chris. "Oh, intern!"

The gloomy intern walked up to Beardo and Topher, carrying a crate in each hand. Beardo and Topher exchanged looks as the intern retrieved the creatures from their crates. Wearing yellow, rubber gloves, the intern held a snarling, six-pawed, hairless rat in Beardo's face. "Team Rat gets a mutant rat," Chris explained as Beardo took the rat in his hands, "And Team Maggot gets a mutant maggot." Topher was handed a green maggot that was dripping ooze from its mouth.

Topher made a noise of disgust as he accepted the maggot, and Beardo let out a similar but stronger hiss to the rat, scaring it into calming down.

Once both competitors had their team's mascot, Chris held up an air horn. "And go!" He hit the button on the horn.

Right off the bat, the giant boot came down swinging, and kicked Beardo right off the platform. Beardo let out a scream that sounded like it was actually his.

"And Beardo gets the boot!" Chris commented off-screen.

Down in the mud below the platforms, a dazed Beardo laid on the ground with no rat in sight. His afro shuffled a bit, and the rat poked its head out of the massive amount of hair, clearly confused. Even in his dazed state, Beardo managed to make a 'chirp, chirp, chirp!' sound mimicking cartoons where birds circled around a confused person's head.

Above him, Topher eagerly hopped across the platforms with the maggot tucked under his arm. "Topher takes-" Chris began to commentate.

"Topher gets his team the early lead with a great start," Topher announced, cutting Chris' own commentary off. Upon reaching Scarlett, Topher held out the maggot. "And he makes a flawless pass to Scarlett!"

Taking the maggot, Scarlett said, "I think the commentary is unnecessary." Without another word, she turned and started heading towards her section of the relay.

Topher huffed, walking away. "She doesn't know anything about show business." As soon as he finished his comment, he blindly stepped in a gap between the platforms, and fell into the mud.

Scarlett ran towards her obstacle, holding the maggot in her hands. As she ran, she collided face first with a wooden pole. She let out a hiss of pain, clutching her head with one hand. "Okay," she murmured to herself as she took two steps closer to the camera, "two paces to the pole's right." She made it another few steps, and then the cannonballs started firing, forcing her to stop. After a rapid succession of cannon fire, Scarlett hummed to herself, "Alright, can't go any further without a plan. If I could just calculate the pattern for the cannons…"

Meanwhile, Beardo successfully climbed back up onto the platforms, and hopped the gaps to the next leg. Letting out a short trumpet of success, he handed the rat to Ella.

"Thank you so much!" Ella smiled gratefully to Beardo, who gave her a thumbs-up as she turned to run.

Still doing mental math, Scarlett stood off to the side of the section, allowing Ella to hurry by.

"The Rats take the lead!" Chris announced as Ella approached the cannons, the princess' hurry transforming into a happy skip.

As she entered the zone, she started to dance and sing, " _These glasses almost make me blind, but I don't mind. Sure cannonballs may fire, but this isn't as hard as balancing on a wire."_ As she sang and danced along the path, the cannons fired cannonballs but they all missed her. Ella, along with the rat, did not mind the sound at all and continued to dance to the song.

"Whoa! Ella just aced the Cannonball Run… by singing?!" Chris reported, him and Chef shown watching the feed through a monitor. As he made his announcement, the host looked to his assistant with a confused eyebrow raised.

* * *

(Confessional- Ella)

Ella held the rat in her lap, and a couple birds hovered around her. "I was a huge fan of Total Drama World Tour. The contestants in that season were so lucky to get to do that. I wish I was there. If I was on that season, I would've sung the entire time."

* * *

Dancing her way over to Shawn, Ella passed the mascot over. "Take good care of him, please."

"Huh, we're in the lead? Nice job, Ella," Shawn praised. He turned to face his obstacle. "Okay, here goes." Taking a slow step, he stepped onto the rotating log, at which point he started jogging on top of it. "Aha, there we go-ah!" Just as he was getting into the groove, the rat leaped from his hands to chomp on his head. "Ah, not the head! Not the h-eaaaad!" Distracted by trying to get the rat off his skull, Shawn didn't even see the wrecking ball come swinging behind him. It batted him into the air, over the second rotating log, and to Sugar's feet.

"This isn't good," Jasmine noted, observing Shawn's increase in the lead and turning back towards the Cannonball Run. "Scarlett, hurry it up over there!"

The maggot crawling at her feet, Scarlett drew imaginary numbers in the air, and finally declared, "Got it!" Picking up the maggot, she rushed through the area to Jasmine as the cannons fired, dodging every which way. "Sorry for the delay. Couldn't make any mathematical errors," the genius apologized, passing the maggot to the unofficial team leader.

"It's fine. I can take it from here." Jasmine hurried away to start on the logs.

Standing up, Shawn shoved the rat into Sugar's hands. "Here! Take the little brain muncher!"

Though she couldn't really see much through the specs, she thought the rat looked a little cute. "Aw, who's a cute little varmint? You are, you are." She hugged the rat, almost squeezing the life out of it, and the rat fought to get itself some air.

"Sugar, the challenge?" Shawn reminded the pageant queen while she was still hugging the mutated creature.

The pageant queen stopped hugging the rat and looked at Shawn, "What? Oh right! Yeah, I'm going to win this thing. It's Sugar Time!" Still holding the rat close to her, Sugar jumped on the first platform and noticed it was a little wobbly. A glance down below told her that the beavers were gnawing away at the support beam holding the platform up. "Hey! Quit that! I'm trying to win the pageant up here!" She yelled down at them. Unfortunately, it was too late. The support beam was already eaten through, and the whole platform came down, taking Sugar and the Rats' mascot with it.

Down in the mud, Sugar sat up, the rat in one arm. Lifting up her free one, she smiled. "Hey, a mud bath! I've been needing one of those." Nearby growling caught her attention, and she looked up, seeing two snarling mutant beavers. "This don't look so good, does it?"

Back at Wrecking Ball Alley, Jasmine had little trouble getting across. Having seen Shawn get hit earlier, the Outback explorer was prepared for when the ball tried to strike her. Once it got close to her, she jumped on it. "Got to do better than that, mate!" She told the machine, leaping off when it reached the height of its arc.

Now standing, Sugar was still confronted with the beavers. "Listen, I've wrangled with pigs as big as you two! Do you really want to go up against me?" She challenged the beavers. They merely growled at her. "Well, I tried…" Darting her eyes around, she soon got an idea. Dramatically, she pointed past the beavers. "Look over there! A girl beaver's checking you two out!"

Amazingly, the beavers bought it, and looked in the direction Sugar pointed. Quietly chuckling to herself, Sugar ran off. Moments after she left the vicinity, the beavers realized they had been tricked, whirling around and expecting to see Sugar, but she was gone. The two growled.

"Your turn," Jasmine simply stated as she passed the maggot to Rodney.

While they were passing the maggot, their hands touched and Rodney got this love-struck look in his eyes as he stared at Jasmine, who became confused by his behavior.

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

Rodney blushed, his cheeks slightly red. "She passed the maggot to me… she trusts me. Every good relationship has trust. It's a sign! We're destined to be together."

* * *

"Um, are you going to take the darn thing or not?" Jasmine asked while he was still in that dazed state.

Rodney shook his head. "Huh, oh yeah. I'll take it." He completed the hand-off and held the maggot in the crook of one of his arms. The farm boy stood there staring at his teammate lovingly. "You… two days… dangerous… wedding…"

The tall Australian gripped his overalls once she got annoyed by his distracted behavior. "Get a hold of yourself and go!" She commanded as she shook him.

"What? Oh yeah!" Rodney snapped back to attention and turned to the Gangplank. Tucking the maggot into the chest pocket of his overalls, the country boy hopped across the first few platforms. Upon reaching the third platform, everything began to wobble. The beavers had gone back to chewing the posts. "Waaah!" He yelled as he fell down.

Finally a safe distance from the beavers, Sugar giggled loudly, pumping her fist as she approached Max and Sky. "Nailed it! Here you go." Sugar made to hand the rat over to Sky, but pulled the rat back at the last second. "Wait! Mama is going to miss her little rodent baby. Mwah!" Giving the rat one last hug and a kiss on the head, to which the rat seemed disgusted and confused, Sugar handed over the rat. "Okay, now you can take him."

"Thanks, I think," Sky took the rat with uncertainty, and began to run. "Okay, Sky. Your vision is impaired, but you can still overcome this obstacle. Here goes!" She pep-talked as she got closer and closer to Double Trouble. To her surprise, she managed to land decently on the first bulb. From there she did a front flip to the next, jumped from that one, jumped over the third bulb with another front flip, and landed on the fourth bulb. On the fourth and last bulb, she jumped to the next platform. However, the bulb's constant moving up and down threw off her balance, and she ended up jumping short of the platform.

On the platform, Dave stood there with his arms outstretched. "I got it! I got it!" As Sky fell short of him with the rat in her hands, he squirmed and brought his hands back to his chest. "No, I don't," he said with a hint of squeamishness.

Having fallen face first in the mud, Sky groaned as she pushed herself up onto her knees. The rat, free from her hold, began scurrying away.

"Hey, get back here! We're not done yet!" Sky got to her feet, and chased after the creature, tripping in the slippery mud in the process.

Back at Double Trouble's starting point, Rodney hauled himself up to where Max was. "Here, take the little guy." The country boy handed the maggot over to Max.

"Fine, if I must," the wannabe villain muttered. Taking the maggot into his hands, he stared at it through the glasses. "Hm, not quite the evil little minion I want, but you'll have to do."

The maggot puked onto his face.

Cringing, Max gagged. "We'll have to work on that." Without another word, he took off at a run towards the bulbs.

"Good luck!" Rodney called, still hanging from the edge of the platform. A beaver paw grabbed onto the back of his overalls, and dragged him back down as he screamed.

Max cackled as he approached his obstacle. "Prepare to face the wrath of me-ouch!" His sinister proclamation abruptly cut off when he jumped onto the first bulb, painfully landing on his stomach. The bulb bounced him onto the next one, where he landed on his back that time, and the process repeated for the other two, and he finally fell on his face in front of the twins.

"And with Max's bumbling performance, the Maggots retake the lead!" Chris announced.

"Haha, wow! That was so lame!" Amy sneered, and took the maggot from Max. Almost immediately, she shoved it in her sister's arms. "Here. I touched it so I think my participation counts, or whatever."

"Uh, I'm not sure if it works like that," Sammy pointed out.

Amy barked out a short laugh. "Oh, I'm pretty sure it does. Trust me."

The camera shifted over to Dave, and Sky arrived with the rat. "Here, sorry it took so long."

"It's fine," Dave told her, and then glanced down at the team's mascot. "Uh, before you pass it to me, could you maybe wipe it off?"

While Sky reluctantly did as Dave asked, concerned that this delay could cost their team the win, the twins went on ahead.

"Look, don't embarrass yourself more than you already do, and just don't even try to win. Don't try to be a hero," Amy told her sister as they jogged.

Sammy frowned, "But… I want to try."

"Well don't," Amy responded flippantly, "trying is for people, like me and not you, who are actually good at it."

"I don't care. Trying is better than not trying at all," Sammy replied, and the twin cheerleaders reached the Grand Slam. They stood at the edge, staring at the finishing point of the challenge.

Almost immediately, Amy side-eyed her sister, and stated, "You're not going to make it."

Down below in the mud, Rodney found himself stuck between the two beavers. "You guys really don't want to hurt me, do you?" Rodney asked, looking between them. "I have a girlfriend to think about, maybe two. Do you really want a broken heart, or two on your conscience?" The beavers looked between themselves, chattering to one another. One of them drew a heart cracked in two in the mud. "Oh, you guys want to find a girlfriend too? I get how that feels, like a lot." The two beavers chittered, pounding their double tails in the mud, and enveloping Rodney in a hug. "Aw, that's right. Us guys looking for love need to stick together. Bring it in." Rodney wrapped one arm around the middle of each, and squeezed. The beavers began to gasp for air, surprised by Rodney's strength.

"I'm telling you, you're not going to make it," Amy continued to argue when the scene switched back to them.

Sammy had her back turned at her sister, and grabbed one of the two ropes available. "Still going to try."

"Samey, don't you dare-!"

The mean twin's sister leaped, and swung away from the platform. Just as she left, Dave arrived with a clean mutant rat in his arms. He lout a "No!" as he came onto the screen. Sammy's swing seemed to be clear, avoiding the bats and heading straight for the glove. When she got close enough, she planted her feet on the glove, but too much of her balance was off. She tried to maintain position, but her boots ultimately caused her to fall, not quite reaching the intended goal.

With a plop into the mud, Sammy groaned as she sat there, all dirtied up and the maggot in her lap.

"Okay, Dave… you can do this. It's a straight shot to the glove. Just one swing, and that's it. One swing without hitting those tough-looking bats, and one swing without falling into the gross, dirty mud." Dave attempted to coach himself, grasping the other remaining rope in one hand, and cradling the rat in his other arm. Off to the side, Amy watched with an uncaring expression, not even attempting to stop Dave from finishing the challenge.

"Come on, Dave! Do it!" Sky encouraged, followed by other vocal support from the rest of the team.

Beads of sweat formed on Dave's forehead. The rat seemed to notice sweat on the boy's arm as well. "Alright, you can do it. On three! One… two…"

At that moment, Sammy returned to the platform with the maggot, splotches of mud all over the two of them. "Eugh, I'm covered in mud…" The nice twin whimpered.

Caught off-guard by Sammy's return, Dave whirled around, screaming in fright the moment he saw her all filthy. He attempted to take a step back, but found nothing but air. Faltering, he accidentally began to swing towards the glove. Along the way, he slammed into nearly every bat surrounding the area. Reaching the glove, he slipped off the rope, falling on his face. The rat blinked as it somehow landed on Dave's head.

"The Rats win!" Chris declared, causing the other Rats to cheer. "To the Rats the spoils- McLean brand soap, shampoo, and conditioner guaranteed to wash off the stink."

"I dunno. Stink isn't so bad." Shawn remarked, earning a weird look from Ella and Sky. Beardo and Sugar shrugged, not disagreeing with him.

Chris shot a finger pistol at the Maggots. "Maggots, see you at the elimination ceremony!"

The five watching teammates groaned at the loss.

Amy walked over with Sammy in tow. "I told her not to go for it," she said arrogantly as Sammy hung her head.

Jasmine glared at her, unseen by her teammates.

* * *

Later that evening, Jasmine stood in front of the Maggots' cabin. Rodney, Topher, Max, and Scarlett were all sitting on the cabin porch, and the twins were nowhere in sight.

"Okay, we've probably got not much time before the twins come back so let's make this quick," Jasmine hurried along. "I think we need to vote for Amy tonight."

"Why? I thought it was Samey that screwed up in the end," Topher spoke up, reclining back as best he could on the steps.

Jasmine scowled at Topher's words. "She didn't screw up. She tried, unlike Amy. Amy did nothing to try and help us today. All she ever seems to do is boss her sister around, and tries to make her look bad in comparison to her."

"Anything for you…" Rodney murmured, blushing until he realized what he said. "Wait, huh?"

Scarlett adjusted her glasses, saying, "I agree that one of the twins will need to be eliminated. They are clearly distracting to each other, and if we wish to win more challenges in the future, we cannot have any distractions."

"Which one is the mean one? I want to keep her around." Max blurted out, deviously rubbing his hands together. "Her attitude is perfect for my future empire."

"We don't want to keep the mean one. We want to get rid of the mean one." Jasmine corrected him, growing increasingly annoyed.

Max raised an eyebrow, eyeing Jasmine strangely. "Why would we do that?"

The Outback girl facepalmed, and let out an irritated sigh. "Just vote for Amy, please."

* * *

At the bonfire ceremony, Chris stood prepared with the plate of marshmallows in his hands. Beside him stood Chef in his hazmat suit, holding the metal box. Amy sat on the first row's right corner with Sammy to her left, and to Sammy's left sat Jasmine. Topher sat beside Jasmine, and in the back row, Scarlett sat behind Topher, to her right sat Max, and Rodney to the right of him.

"Ready?" Chris questioned to the team. "Everyone gets a marshmallow, even the loser. But that's one marshmallow you do not want to eat- the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom. The following people are safe," Chris picked up a marshmallow, and threw it.

"Jasmine." The Australian girl plucked it out of the air with one hand.

"Topher." The Chris fan smiled, catching the marshmallow.

"Scarlett." The genius held out a hand, and the marshmallow landed in it perfectly.

"Max." The marshmallow beaned the villain's forehead, and he fumbled to cup it in his hands.

"Rodney." The marshmallow managed to land in the chest pocket of Rodney's overalls. Reaching in, he pulled it out with a smile on his face.

The view shifted around all of the campers as they received their marshmallows, and finally landed on the twins, both without a marshmallow. "Which leaves Amy and Samey!" Chris gleefully continued.

"I'm in the bottom two with her?!" Amy exclaimed indignantly, pointing at her twin. "I'm not surprised she doesn't have a marshmallow yet, but me?!"

Ignoring Amy's outburst, Chris called, "The Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom goes to…"

Amy sat forward, actually nervous. Sammy sighed silently, hanging her head and getting ready to accept her fate. She blinked oddly when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw the face of a solemn Jasmine silently supporting her.

"Amy!" Chris declared at last.

Smiling victoriously, Amy shot out of her seat, throwing her fists in the air. "Hah," she whirled around to face her sister, "in your face, Same- huh?!" Her mind finally caught up, and she saw the glowing marshmallow coming her way. Yelping, she jumped out of the way. She shook her head afterwards, and scowled at her sister. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sammy replied honestly, not sure what happened herself.

As Amy pestered her sister, the viewpoint shifted over to Scarlett, who had her arms folded over her chest smugly.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Jasmine clearly thinks nicely of Samey, and wants to save her." Scarlett explained in the confessional. "I could vote her off, and leave Jasmine one less potential ally in the game, but I know what it's like to have an annoying sibling."

* * *

Amy sat in the Hurl of Shame's bucket, very angry. Chris stood next to her on the dock, and Chef was at the catapult's lever.

"Samey had something to do with this! I know she did." She cried out.

Chris smiled at her. "I'd ask if you have any last words, but I'm pretty sure you just said them."

Rolling her eyes, Amy glared at Chris. "Stuff it, Mc- ahhhhhhh!" The catapult launched, flinging Amy out of sight.

"Two hurls down, twelve to go. Who will be eliminated next? Tune in, and find out on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" Chris outro-ed.

* * *

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th Place**

 **The vote here was pretty close. Jasmine, Rodney, and Sammy all voted for Amy. Max, Topher, and Amy all voted for Sammy. Scarlett was the tiebreaker vote. Her reasoning is just as she said. She also wanted to vote off Max, but she saw enough of him and her brother in Amy, who already had a target on her back thanks to her actions in the day and Jasmine's attempt to rally the team against her.**

 **I changed the word 'laser' from the original episode's title to 'mutant' because the laser part was just random, and no lasers were seen in the episode. I also used trivia from the campers for the first part of the challenge, instead of making stuff up. Sky's was used as a way to get the ball rolling, and Rodney's was to make sure he got some attention. In canon, Rodney was essentially ignored or dismissed by the other characters when it came to his love life, so I brought it up in the challenge to fix that. I could've made something up for Beardo to make the challenge digress without a verbal response like B before him, but I thought Ella's canon trivia was much funnier, and gives a little depth to the character so the cast knows her as more than a fairy tale princess expy.**

 **The second half of the challenge went through a major overhaul in how it operated. Sugar was originally set to hop across the Gangplank as the platforms tipped over, but that was when Rodney got ahead of her so with her going before him, that just didn't jive well. Scarlett also was going to use the cannon fire from Ella as a measure of time before making her way through. Probably the only leg of the second half that remained the same as in my original draft was Topher and Beardo's start.**

 **Read and review! Reviews are awesome!**


	3. TDRI Episode 3

I know I didn't respond to chapter one reviews, but the reviews from chapter two were so good that I felt I had to respond to them, and since replying to them here seems like a popular method, I'll try that. Here we go!

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Yes, I will be doing All-Stars in between the two seasons. I want to see how the outcomes of this season affect the events of All-Stars. Sorry, but I can't say who qualifies for it because that would be spoilers.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Yes, Amy's gone, and I cannot answer as to whether she returns or not, because that would be spoilers. I know that the episodes are sticking close to the originals, but that's what happens when you're starting from the beginning. We will be straying from canon more over time.

 **StarHeart Specials:** Thanks for the review, and you're welcome for ditching Amy. Like I told WeirdAlfan101, I do plan on writing All-Stars.

 **sdgeek:** I'm glad that you like what I'm doing with Rodney. The canon cast basically ignored him or dismissed him about his love life, and I wanted that to get some attention. I'm also glad that you liked the scene with the beavers. I wasn't sure about it personally, but I'm glad someone liked it.

 **Fangren:** Thanks for the review! Rodney voted for Amy because he is in love with Jasmine now, and he'll do what she says. If he was still in love with Amy, he would've voted for Sammy. I'm glad that you liked Dave's mirroring of Scott's idol hunt scene. I didn't really plan for it to go that way, and just sorta ran with it when I thought of it. I couldn't really think of anyone else to have the subplot with Fang so I settled with Sugar.

 **Madness is a State of Mind:** Thanks for the review! I'm sorry that you're sad about Amy, but it was necessary. Nice to know you enjoyed the chapter, though.

 **SilentSinger948:** Thanks for the review! Yeah, Leonard and Amy are annoying, each to their own degree, and yeah, some of the cast are aware of what goes on around them.

Now with reviews out of the way, onward to the episode!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything in the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 3- Ice Ice Baby

"Previously on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, we learned that although our campers are here to win, they are all losers in one way or another. Really, really big losers. It was a psychological butt-kicking that quickly turned literal, then comical, and then hysterical." Chris chuckled. "But in the end, Amy got the biggest boot of all. Bye-bye!

"I love my job," Chris remarked to the camera when it flashed to him, and backed up so he could be in full view. "Stay tuned as more things blow up, more contestants throw up, and some even try to hook up right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

Some bushes near the Mess Hall rustled as a mouse with an abnormally large brain scurried out into the open. A shadow appeared over the mutated creature, revealing the shadow to be a screeching eagle with its talons out for grabbing. The mouse's eyes glowed green, and shot a beam of green light at the bird. The bird froze on contact, and began getting slammed back and forth into the ground around the mouse, the mouse presumably using some form of psychic powers to control the bird's movements. After thrashing the bird thoroughly, the mouse carelessly tossed the bird aside, and continued towards the Mess Hall, getting in through a small hole in the door.

Inside the Mess Hall, the two teams sat at their respective tables. The Rats took the table nearest to the exit, and the Maggots took the table nearest to the kitchen.

Shawn put a spoonful of gruel in his mouth, and his eyes bulged in response. Coughing, he spat out the gruel. "Man! I thought the slop I have prepared for my bunker would be worse than this!"

"Do I even want to ask about the slop?" Dave asked from across the table.

* * *

(Confessional- Dave)

"So," Dave began to count on his fingers, "the beds suck, the cabins suck, the bathroom sucks, the wildlife sucks, and the food sucks. That's five-star material right there." He concluded, holding his hand up to the camera, despite the fact he only had four digits.

* * *

Scarlett lifted a scoop of food to her mouth, intending to eat it, but she paused at the sound of tinkering at work. Her eye twitching, she looked to her right. "Max, what are you doing?" The shot zoomed out, showing Max sitting next to her. Unlike everybody else in the Mess Hall, he had no bowl of gruel in sight.

"Working on a tool of evil." Max stated simply as he connected some things together. Looking up, he proudly gestured to the device that resembled a helmet with a bunch of wires and little bulbs attached to it, "This, my future minion, is a helmet of evil. It tampers with the wearer's brainwaves and brings out the evil within them. This island is crawling with creatures that would make good minions with their strange powers. I just put this on one of them and bam, Evil has a servant capable of taking over the world! Mwahahaha!" He cackled before calming down, "Though, it's not working right yet for some reason. I'll keep working on it until I've got it."

Scarlett scanned her eyes over the device, and noticed that a plug wasn't connected to an outlet. The object seemed well put together, but yet, the wannabe villain didn't seem to remember to plug the cord in. "You do that," Scarlett said at last, eating another spoonful of slop.

To Max's right, Jasmine and Sammy sat together. Jasmine seemed relaxed as she ate while Sammy had a sad expression on her face.

"I can't believe that I'm here, and Amy's not. Amy never leaves me alone." Sammy confessed to Jasmine.

A grin formed on Jasmine's face at Sammy's words. "You have me to thank for that. When you and Amy were in the bathroom after the challenge yesterday, I had a little talk with the team."

"Wait, so it was you that got her out instead of me? Thank you so much, Jasmine!" Sammy beamed gratefully, "You won't regret keeping me on the team."

"I already don't," Jasmine replied confidently, and continued to eat. "What we did was best for the team. Right, Rodney?" She glanced across the table at the country boy.

Rodney perked up from where he was stirring his food around his bowl. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Amy… vote… mutant shark… hearts…" He trailed off the longer he looked at Jasmine.

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

"It's too bad we had to vote Amy off," Rodney admitted in the outhouse. "She was my first girlfriend on the island, but then Jasmine came in and stole my heart away…" He held his hands to his heart, and sighed blissfully.

* * *

"I wish we could've kept her around," Topher spoke up from his seat next to Rodney, across from Sammy. "Her bad attitude would've been good for ratings, and maybe a showmance too."

"Showmance?" Sammy repeated, her tone giving off a sense of worry.

"A showmance is a relationship on TV played up for drama and ratings. It works every time," Topher answered, casually waving his hand. At this, Rodney gave him a curious glance.

Over at the Rats' table, Beardo scooped up a spoonful of gruel with two little antenna poking out of it. Beardo didn't notice, but when he put in his mouth, he began to choke. Clutching his throat, he got to his feet, and stood away from the table, gagging.

"Hang on, Beardo!" Sky called out, rushing up behind Beardo and giving him a hefty whack on his back. The force was enough to make him spit out whatever he was choking on. A little beetle flew out among bits of gruel, and bounced onto the floor.

Wiping his brow, Beardo said, "Phew! Thanks for the save there, Sky."

The rest of his team stared at him in shock. "Did you just-?" Sky stammered, her eyes wide.

"Afro guy can talk?!" Sugar exclaimed, blown away by the revelation.

"Of course I can talk," Beardo replied in a calm tone, acting as if he had been talking the whole time. "Got to thank someone who saves your life, you know?" Ella seemingly paid no attention to his words, instead walking over to the beetle that he had coughed up, and picking it up in her hands.

"Poor little beetle, did you end up in Beardo's breakfast by accident?" She cooed to the insect, soothingly running her finger across its back.

Dave pointed a finger at the insect. "I could've eaten that?!" He stared at his bowl, and shoved it away with a grimace. "Suddenly, I'm not so hungry anymore…"

"I'll take it!" Sugar immediately offered, and snatched up the bowl before anyone could object. She chugged the bowl's contents into her mouth.

At the other table, the mouse from earlier turned up on the tabletop, catching Scarlett's attention. "Fascinating," she said as she adjusted her glasses, "the effects of the toxic waste has apparently increased the size of this rodent's cranium, and gave it increased intelligence. I have to examine this." Scarlett observed, reaching out to pick up the mouse.

Before she could, the mouse rose a few inches into the air above the table and its eyes began to glow. Retracting her outstretched hand, she gave a small gasp of shock.

From the outside of the Mess Hall, a racket could be heard inside the building along with several screams from the campers. Eventually, the majority of them, but not all, ran outside to a safe distance from the building. Moments after they left the premises, a refrigerator flew out the door and crashed into the ground.

The campers bent over, gasping for breath when they heard a gravelly scream, and turned their heads. The scene panned over a few feet, showing Max flying into the ground, heels over his head and his homemade helmet in his hands.

"Attention, players!" Chris' voice boomed over the loudspeakers. "Please head to the looming tragedy that is Mount Looming Tragedy!" A dark mountain with ominous clouds circling around it was shown over the treetops. "Your race begins now!" To underline his order, he blared his air horn over the loudspeakers.

"Let's move, Maggots!" Jasmine commanded, and the teams started running past the Mess Hall. Of the group, Max was lagging behind at a noticeable gap.

* * *

One by one, the campers reached the base of the mountain, which itself was on top of a hill. Each camper panted as they reached their destination.

"A simple run like that?" Topher weakly stated, "not a good first challenge of the day, Chris."

Dave was the last to appear on the scene, and he walked over to a bush a few feet down from the others. Collapsing onto his knees, he barfed into the bush.

Shawn shook his head as Dave wiped his mouth with a sanitized cloth. "Dude, you need to exercise more." A whistle caught the teens' attention.

"Okay, mutant food, on with the challenge!" Chris gleefully declared, standing with Chef Hatchet near a jeep. "Part one is an uphill battle." The host gestured to the mountain. "You have to climb all the way up to that cliff. First team to reach the top gets advantage in part two. You can climb with your hands, or with whatever you find in the pile," he explained, and pointed to a pile of random junk a few feet away. "Don't worry, this junkyard doesn't have a dog; it has a giant, mutant beetle!"

Said mutant beetle poked its head out from behind the pile, hissing as its red eyes glowed. This appearance prompted gasps of fright from some of the campers. Ella stared at the beetle with a thoughtful gaze.

Chris chuckled at the contestants' reactions. "This guy is a bit of a hoarder. His estate is full of useful crud and disgusting crud."

As if to prove Chris' point, the beetle hauled a toilet out of the junk pile, and threw it at the contestants. Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Sky, and Shawn all ducked to avoid the toilet flying over their heads.

"That is," Chris continued to explain, "if you can get near it!" He then signaled to Chef, who was now on top of the mountain and blowing a horn. Chris pumped a fist, and exclaimed, "It is on!"

Taking that as their cue to begin the challenge, both teams dashed forward to get started.

"Go, Maggots, go!" Jasmine rallied her team.

* * *

Max whined pitifully as he tried to reach a ledge. "Curse this mountain and its lack of short handholds!"

"You can do it, Max!" Sammy called down from up above. As she returned to her task, her hand slipped when she attempted to grab a handhold, and she began to scream.

The tanned arm of Jasmine reached down, and hauled her up.

Sammy sighed in relief at Jasmine's save. "Thanks so much!"

"Any time, mate!" Jasmine replied, tipping her hat in acknowledgement.

Sky hummed in thought, watching the two girls. "That was nice of her."

"And risky," Shawn added, climbing up past Sky a few feet away. "A move like that could put her in the arm's reach of the undead."

The gymnast gave him a weird look. "Haven't you been saying the last couple days that zombies can't climb?"

Shawn nodded at her. "Yeah, but imagine if she had done that close to the ground instead of way up here."

"…I guess that's fair." Sky concluded, and continued climbing along with the conspiracy nut.

Not too far behind Sky and Shawn, Dave struggled to make progress.

"Eugh, I'm getting all kinds of sweaty today," he complained with a whimper in his voice. "I'm going to need a nice, hot shower after this challenge."

"You may need one, but I won't." Topher spoke up, coming up to Dave's level.

Dave gave Topher a perplexed look. "How are you not sweaty by now?"

"Want to know my secret? It's a little combination of two things called muscle and lucky handholds, two things of which you don't have. Might want to work on that." Topher confessed cockily.

"Oi, Topher!" Jasmine shouted, the view returning to her and Sammy. "Stop talking to the other team, and climb!"

Topher called back, "On it!" Jasmine continued up with Sammy after that, and Topher leaned close to Dave. "Seriously though, work on that muscle. You're not going to pick up any chicks without it." He grabbed another handhold, and made his way further up the mountain.

Dave seemed to take Topher's comments seriously, as he put a finger to his chin. "Work on that muscle…"

* * *

Sugar attempted to file her nails with the tooth she got from Fang as she sat on a boulder near the mountain.

"Hey, Sugar?" Chris asked as the camera zoomed out to show him standing next to her. "Aren't you going to do the challenge?"

"Right after that run you made us do? Heck no!" Sugar retorted, giving him a scalding glare with one eye. She continued to file. "Give me a few minutes. We have a few minutes break between sessions of a pageant to get ready for the next one."

The camera panned over, and showed Ella standing at the base of the mountain, wondering how she was going to get up to the top. She glanced to her right, and Beardo came sliding down to the ground.

"I think this might be game over for me," Beardo huffed, punctuating his statement with a game over sound effect.

"Don't give up, Beardo." Ella encouraged as she put a hand on his shoulder, and pointed to the right. "Look! Some members of the other team might be onto something."

Scarlett kneeled next to the junk pile, scribbling something in the dirt with a stick and occasionally looking at the junk pile. Max sat a few feet away from her, watching her like an impatient child.

"Hope they have a plan for that beetle, otherwise they're toast," Beardo remarked.

* * *

Up on the mountain, Sky moved to another handhold, but as she did so, her foot accidentally knocked a few rocks astray. "Oops!" She yelped sincerely, looking down as the rocks fell.

Jasmine happened to glance up at the noise, and cried out, "Avalanche!" She and Sammy screamed as the rocks pushed them off their current perch.

"Ava-what?" Topher inquired, only for the two girls to crash into him, and then the three of them hit Rodney on the way down too.

The four Maggots groaned in pain as they laid on the ground at the base of the mountain, not too far from where Sugar was sitting.

Sugar paused in her nail filing, and looked up. "Someone sounds hurt," she observed as she glanced around, her lips forming a gleeful smile. "Was it Ella that got hurt?"

* * *

Scarlett attempted to walk up to the junk pile to retrieve something, but a stream of fire got in her way, forcing her to retreat. The source of the fire happened to be the beetle.

"Whoa! Fire too? I wasn't being literal when I said they were going to be toast," Beardo stated, watching the encounter with wide eyes.

"Whether you were being literal or not, we must help them! They could get hurt!" Ella declared, running over to assist.

Beardo lifted a hand up to stop her, but the act failed. "Ella, don't!"

Running over to the junk pile, Ella cast a disapproving scowl the beetle's way. "Excuse me, but that was very rude. I know you're supposed to guard the pile, but that's no excuse to spit fire at people." She waved a scolding finger at the beetle.

The beetle hissed warningly.

Max got to his feet, and walked over to Ella. "Did you really think being polite would work? You must show dominance if you want someone to obey you. Watch!" He marched over to the pile, putting his fists on his hips. "Listen, you reject of an insect! I command you to stand down, and let us take your things!"

As the beetle sent out another warning hiss, his eyes glowed. Max noticed this, and his pupils shrunk in fright.

"Um, please?" He added weakly, putting on a strained smile.

The beetle spewed fire at Max's feet, forcing him to jump away. The beetle curled into a ball, and started rolling after Max, who ran away.

"Stop! Your evil master commands it!" The wannabe villain shouted as he ran. Scarlett had an odd smile on her face while Ella watched with concern, and Beardo hesitantly walked over to join them.

Rodney groaned, getting to his feet with Topher while Jasmine helped Sammy up. "What hit me?"

"We did," Sammy answered ashamedly. "Now we're back to square one!"

"And unless we can somehow climb like crazy monkeys," Topher noted while glancing up at the competition still climbing, "it looks like we're hosed."

Jasmine looked over to the junk, and raised an eyebrow. "Say, what's Scarlett up to?"

Scarlett appeared to be attempting to pry some sort of tarp out of the pile, but her lack of physical strength wouldn't allow the tarp to budge.

"You think she figured out a way to get up to the top fast enough?" Sammy asked.

"Let's hope so. She might be our only shot. Come on." Jasmine motioned for her teammates to follow, and they went over to the pile.

Max's cries of pain from being pummeled by the beetle went ignored by his team as they helped Scarlett do whatever she had planned. Meanwhile, Beardo dug through the pile for something to use while Ella appeared reluctant to make a choice to do anything.

* * *

Up at the top of the mountain, Chef stood surrounded by huge blocks of ice. Below him, Shawn was pretty close to the top. Chef's walkie-talkie crackled to life, and Chef lifted it to his ear.

"You know what to do! Ice them!" Chris' voice cackled, causing Chef to grin deviously.

"Almost there…" Shawn grunted under his breath.

Chef held an ice block over the edge of the summit, and dropped it. Shawn only had a moment to look up before the block slammed into his face, and he lost hold of the mountain. Sky watched as her teammate fell past her, and so did Dave, who appeared to be following Sky's path to the top. Chef then turned his attention to Sky and Dave, beginning to drop blocks down their area.

Sky yelped, pressing close to the ledge she was on. "I guess being small has its advantages sometimes!"

Dave dodged the first few, and laughed. "Ha! Easy as pi-!" He, however, failed to dodge the last of the volley.

"It looks like it's just me left," Sky said, watching Dave fall and wincing when his impact with the ground was heard. "Unless…" Her eyes trailed off to the side.

Sugar continued to file her nails as she sat, but froze when she heard a voice.

"Hey, Sugar! You might want to come up here!" The gymnast shouted. "I think there's a tiara up here for whoever gets up here first! They'll be queen of the mountain!"

Sugar's face lit up. "A tiara? Queen of the mountain? Why, that has my name written all over it!" She stood, and walked past the recovering Shawn and Dave, and began her climb.

Chef threw down another block, this time aimed for Sugar. The pageant queen made no attempt to dodge. It hit her in the face, broke into pieces, and she scowled.

"Hey, watch it! You're gonna smudge my makeup!" The pageant queen hollered, punching a block and breaking it into pieces before it could hit her.

Sky watched in surprised awe at Sugar's display.

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"If you want someone to be a team player, you have to get them properly motivated," Sky commented in the outhouse. She glanced off to the side. "That said, I hope Sugar doesn't get too mad that I lied to her."

* * *

Shawn and Dave finally got back on their feet, and turned to check the other team's progress.

"Now, attach that pole there," Scarlett directed as her teammates built something with a mattress, a tarp, and some big lighter. "Samey, are those knots secure?"

Sammy held up some rope tied into a knot. "I think so?"

"Jasmine, check Sammy's work," Scarlett decided, and turned, pointing to Rodney and Topher. "You two, finish fastening the burner."

Dave and Shawn exchanged puzzled looks, shrugged, and started the climb again.

* * *

On the other side of the junk pile, the beetle had Max in a headlock, and was punching him with a boxing glove.

"I ordered you- to stop- punching- me! Dang it!" Max barked as best as he could while beaten up.

"I want to be nice," Beardo told Ella as they stood off to the side, watching. Though, Ella seemed to be thinking of something rather than watching attentively like Beardo. "But, he's part of the other team, and I don't want that thing coming after me."

Ella murmured to herself. "Upset beetle, lost baby beetle, oh!" Everything clicked into place for her, and she brought out the little beetle she had found and Beardo choked on earlier. "Could you be family?"

The little beetle emitted a squeak, catching the larger beetle's attention. The larger beetle dropped Max. The baby beetle jumped from Ella's hands, and skittered over. Picking up the little beetle, the larger one patted its back, and the little one burped a spark of fire.

A smile appeared on the father beetle's face, and he retreated back behind the pile.

"Wasn't that just wonderful?" Ella cooed to Beardo.

Beardo shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that was nice."

"You couldn't have figured that out ages ago?!" Max's shrill voice exclaimed off-screen, causing the two Rats to flinch.

While that happened, the rest of the Maggots completed construction of their project. It appeared to be a mattress attached to the burner, and rope tied a tarp to the burner.

"Uh, if we were building a hot air balloon, wouldn't the bath tub have worked better?" Rodney inquired.

Scarlett walked over, adjusting her glasses. "While for practicality purposes, the tub would've been the better choice, but seeing as we're racing against the other team, we required less weight and more speed."

Max grumbled, walking over while rubbing his back. "Couldn't you have finished the stupid project after you helped your leader?"

Ignoring Max, Scarlett commanded, "Everybody on the mattress!"

"Evil does not-!" Max's comment was cut off by Jasmine grabbing his arm.

"Just get on!" She ordered, tugging him on and shoving him onto Rodney's lap.

"Everybody, please do not fall off otherwise this will have been for naught," Scarlett requested as she fiddled with a knob on the burner.

Fire appeared in the burner, and the sheet above it began to fill with hot air. Slowly, the sheet turned into a balloon, and the mattress began to rise.

"It's working!" Sammy cheered.

Topher grinned at Dave, Shawn, and Sugar as they passed them up. "Looks like Team Maggot is making a comeback!" The three opposing team members gawked at the Maggots' ride.

Chef turned his attention to the Maggots, and readied to strike them down when someone appeared on the mountaintop.

"I made it! I got here first!" Sky exclaimed, jumping up and down with happily raised fists.

"Look out above!" Jasmine's voice rang out, and Sky and Chef whirled to face the direction her voice came from.

The Maggots' makeshift balloon appeared over the mountain's lip, and Scarlett reached up to the burner again. Twisting the knob a bit, the burner cut its fire, and the whole balloon just dropped down onto the mountaintop.

Unfortunately for Chef, that meant right on top of him. Sky winced at the landing.

"Scarlett, you did it! We won the challenge!" Sammy cried out, the team having rolled off either side of the mattress due to the Chef sized lump underneath.

Scarlett raised her head from where she was laying on top of Rodney. "Naturally," she simply said, and then glanced down at Rodney, who was giving her the same look that Rodney gave Jasmine and Amy the day before. "Um, something the matter?"

Rodney stared at the fellow redhead, imagining her surrounded by hearts and cherubs.

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

"Jasmine is strong, but Scarlett? She's really smart… maybe she can be the brain to my brawn." Rodney mused, holding up an arm and showing off his thick muscle.

* * *

As the Maggots got to their feet, Chris flew up to the top with his jetpack. "Slow your roll, Not-Amy, I say who wins," the host reminded.

Sky held a hand to her chest, sighing in relief.

"The Maggots, thanks to Scarlett!" Chris declared.

The Maggots started to cheer once more, except for Max, who turned away in a huff.

"See how I do that better?" The host rhetorically asked with a smug grin.

"I thought the first person up here won the challenge for their team," Sky confessed, gesturing to herself.

Shawn and Dave arrived, and Shawn shrugged at Sky's admission. "Can't win them all, except the apocalypse. It's imperative to win that."

Chris explained, "First team to the top wins, that means your whole team, and you're missing a few members." Sky seemed to sulk at that.

Setting a hand on her shoulder, Dave attempted to cheer her up by saying, "At least this way if we lose, we know who to vote for."

"Who to vote for what?" Sugar piped up, finally reaching the mountain top. Grunting in effort, she pulled herself up to the platform. "Elimination? I hope it's Ella."

Chris landed on the mountain, and removed his helmet and jetpack. "Speaking of elimination, which team will have to face it? Find out after the break!" The show faded out on Chris' smile.

* * *

When the show tuned back in, an ice machine was making snow, and the campers were shown to be standing on an icy field surrounded by a snowy background. Standing in their respective teams, the campers shivered in the cold that the ice machine generated. Jasmine clutched the Maggots' flag as she attempted to keep warm, and Shawn held the Rats' flag.

"Greetings, ice teens!" Chris greeted as he and Chef drove up on a snowmobile, wearing parkas. "Cold enough for ya?" he joked upon seeing them all shivering and their teeth chattering. "I'll take that as a yes," he decided as he dismounted the vehicle. "Time for part two of today's challenge- Capture the Snow Fort! To win, you have to either demo the enemy's fort." Gesturing to his left, the cameras showed a poorly made snow fort that appeared bumpy and weak-walled. "Or capture the flag, and bring it back to your own fort." When Chris gestured to his right, the cameras displayed a strongly-built castle made of snow. "The Maggots won the first part, so they get first dibs on the forts."

Sammy glanced up at the unofficial team captain. "W-we're cho-oosing the castle, r-right?"

"Might be a ba-bad call," Topher argued, "if I know Chris as well as I do, o-odds are it looks nice on the o-outside, but a mess on th-the inside."

"Would he re-really do that?" Rodney spoke up, looking at Topher, who nodded due to wanting to save his warm breath.

Jasmine set her face in a determined expression. "We'll ju-ust have to deal with it. We'll take the castle." She started walking over with the flag, and the rest of her team followed.

* * *

A cut to moments later showed the Maggots inside their fort, no longer shivering. Also in the fort with them were a pile of large snowballs and a shovel sticking into the ground.

"Structurally stable," Scarlett noted as she glanced around. "This is better than I predicted it would be. Excellent selection, Jasmine."

* * *

(Confessional- Max)

"That fort would make an excellent evil lair!" Max laughed sinisterly before adding an afterthought, "it could use a furnace to keep warm though."

* * *

Inside the Rats' fort, which was the same as the Maggots' but with worse walls, Beardo whistled as his team got a look around.

"Man," he breathed, "this place looks so bad, even a snowman wouldn't want to live here."

"I don't know, I think it looks rather cozy," Ella replied with a smile.

Sugar snorted under her breath. "Of course she'd be the only one to like this dump."

"Listen up, players!" Chris called through a megaphone. Outside the two forts, Chris sat in a lawn chair next to a fire under a shady umbrella. Chef carried a chair over, and joined him, sitting down as well. "Use the shovel in each fort to fire your collection of mystery snowballs, which you can fire at each other's forts."

Max gleefully rubbed his hands together as he approached the shovel in the Maggots' fort. "A weapon, perfect! With this, we can menace that terrible team." He gave it a practice pull and launch.

In the Rats' fort, Ella cupped her hands around her mouth to raise her voice. "Why exactly are they called mystery snowballs?"

"Because they inflict major damage, thanks to the secret weapon hidden inside each ball," Chris continued to explain. "But some will damage you," he added as a ball in the Maggots' fort seemed to hiss and move, "so choose wisely. Each team has to elect a captain to command and conquer, starting now!"

Jasmine put her hands on her hips, standing tall and assertive. "Alright, here's how it's going to work. Sammy, Topher, and I will go and get the flag from the other team's fort. Scarlett, Rodney, Max, you three stay here, and defend ours while you attack with the snowballs."

At Jasmine's order, Rodney frowned. "Uh… Jasmine, before we do anything there's something I've got to-!"

Max scoffed, walking up to the center of the group. "Now hold on! I do not take orders from the likes of you!" He jabbed his finger at Jasmine, causing her to glare at him. "I have a better plan!"

"Let's hear it then," Scarlett responded, folding her arms skeptically.

"The tall one, the mean one's clone, and the kiss-up one will go and distract the other team from destroying our fort. Meanwhile, sidekick and the henchman will attack with the snowballs, and defend our flag," Max stated, pointing at everyone and not even bothering with names.

Scarlett merely hummed in understanding. "And what will you be doing?"

In response, Max held up the helmet he had been working on earlier that morning at breakfast. "Completing this, of course! I took some tools from that junk pile, and am going to use them to finish my Helmet of Evil. Once it's complete, I will be unstoppable!"

The genius redhead stared at him flatly for a few moments, and gazed up at Jasmine. "Let's go with your plan."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

Scarlett sent an uninterested glance at the camera as she examined her fingernails on one of her hands. "Max is a fool. Anyone can see that. If we were alone, I would've encouraged his dumb behavior to make himself more of a target, but he's doing that on his own."

* * *

Shawn and Sky began to speak at the same time, saying the same words, "Here's what we're going to do-!" They paused when they noticed this, and glanced at each other. "Uh…"

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"I'm not entirely confident about Shawn leading the team for the challenge, considering his obsession with zombies, but I have to let him try leading us so I don't look like I want to dominate the position. If this works out, I can feel more confident about letting someone else take the lead, and if it doesn't, I have reason to not let him the next time."

* * *

The gymnast cleared her throat. "Erm ehem, Shawn, you want to take this one?" She offered, gesturing with her hand.

"Um, thanks." Shawn acknowledged before turning to the rest of the team. "Okay, this is just like how the zombie apocalypse is going to be, but with the zombies flinging snowballs. We're going to need our best fighters on the attack so Sky, Dave, and I will go get the flag. Beardo, Ella, Sugar, you guys stay and defend home base. Got it?"

Dave timidly raised a hand. "Actually, can I swap with someone…"

"And, go!" Chris declared outside, surprising the team into action.

"Come on, let's go!" Shawn exclaimed, running out into the open with Sky and Dave on his heel.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Dave muttered in worry.

The sun beat down on the area, and Chris and Chef sat next to their warm fire with coconut drinks in their hands. Apparently at some point, the two got warm enough to discard their winter wear.

After taking a sip, Chris said, "Hurry up! My ice is melting, and so will your forts if the sun gets much higher."

"Impatience doesn't suit you well, Chris!" Topher jeered, running alongside Jasmine and Sammy.

The junior Chris was so focused on making a verbal jab at the host that he forgot he was running on ice, and slipped. He fell onto his butt with a yelp, and started sliding across the ice.

"Great, now my butt's probably going to bruise," he complained as he slid past Jasmine and Sammy. Way out in front of his teammates, he slowed to a stop on the ice, and the ice cracked underneath him. With a frightened cry, he fell into the freezing cold water, and popped back up to the surface, encased in an ice cube.

Chef cackled at the sight while Chris chuckled.

"Forgot to tell you," the host called out, "No Man's Land is more like No Man's Water!"

Inside the Rats' fort, Beardo and Ella looked over the pile of snowballs their team had.

"Which one do we throw first?" Ella asked Beardo, looking to him for guidance.

Beardo scratched his beard, thinking as he looked the pile over. "I dunno, but some of them give that 'dun dun dun' feel to me. Ya know?"

Ella clapped happily. "Oh, you rhymed!"

Off to the side, Sugar snorted at her. "Wasn't that hard of one," she mumbled, obviously irritated. The pageant queen took out Fang's tooth again, and tried to file her nails again.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

Sugar huffed in the outhouse. "I know her angle. She's complimenting every little thing noisemaker guy does so he won't vote her off. I know that trick. I used it in a few of my early pageants, and won them after that. Other gals tried to do it to me in a couple, but I didn't fall for it, and I'm not falling for it now."

* * *

Beardo picked up a snowball, and put it on the shovel's handle. "Let's try this one," he decided. "It looks solid." Pulling the handle back, he launched it through the window as Ella watched on, partially concerned for the other team.

Outside, Jasmine and Sammy approached their frozen teammate, not even noticing the snowball soaring overhead.

The snowball hit the pillar of the Maggots' fort closest to the camera, and Rodney poked his head out to look. He pulled his head back in, and faced Scarlett. "It looks like they hit our left pillar."

"It appears they have not finished assessing their correct trajectory," Scarlett assumed while taking a snowball into her hands. "Unfortunately for them, I have already found ours." Loading the snowball onto the shovel, she reeled back, and let it fly.

The snowball soared over the heads of the campers outside, and homed in on the Rats' fort.

"Incoming~!" Ella warned in a high-pitched sing-song tone, and she and Beardo dove for cover.

Sugar didn't pay attention to Ella's warning, and continued to file. The snowball beaned her in the forehead, and her body recoiled back, the back of her head hitting the flag post, and her body fell to the floor.

"Did that hit? I think it hit." Rodney inquired, unsure of what he saw.

Scarlett shrugged. "It went through the window so I'd likely say we hit the bullseye of the target so-to speak."

Ella approached her fallen teammate. "Sugar, are you okay?"

The pageant queen rubbed her head with one of her hands. "Ooh, my achin' brain…"

* * *

Outside, Jasmine and Sammy had reached Topher, and Jasmine was motioning Sammy along.

"Go get the flag," she told her teammate, and proceeded to reach out and grab the sides of Topher's block. "I have to get Topher."

"You want me to get the flag?" Sammy asked, nervous. She glanced down, and started twiddling her fingers in circles with each other. "I don't know…"

"Just go, Sammy! You can do it!" The Outback explorer grunted, and attempted to heave the block out of the water.

Sammy peered over her shoulder in the direction of their enemy's post. "Okay." Turning on her heel, she began to carefully walk across the ice towards the Rats' fort.

* * *

Back in the Rats' fort, Ella returned to helping Beardo fire snowballs, and they stopped what they were doing when a particularly large snowball landed next to them. The snowball exploded, and the giant beetle guarding the junk pile in the first part of the challenge hissed at them while raising its two foremost legs menacingly.

"Whoa! It's just us!" Beardo stated, attempting to placate the mutant insect. He pointed at Ella. "Remember? She reunited you with your baby." The camera shifted over to Ella, and she waved a friendly greeting to the beetle.

The baby beetle hopped up onto the adult beetle's head, and waved a leg at her. At the same time, Sugar snapped out of her daze, and happened to glance up to see the interaction.

"We're your friends," Beardo continued, and walked over to point out the window. "Those are the guys that launched you at us. They're the ones you should hiss at." The two beetles jumped out the window, and started to scurry back towards where they came from.

Ella joined Beardo at the window, frowning. "I don't think that was a very nice thing to do."

"In this game, you've got to make tough choices. Come on." Beardo went back to the shovel, and Ella reluctantly followed.

* * *

Shawn, Sky, and Dave were out on the ice, but seemed to be going nowhere as they ducked under snowballs being fired from both sides.

"This is hopeless!" Dave cried out. "With all these snowballs being thrown around, we're sitting ducks out here!"

"We're not sitting ducks," Sky argued. "We just have to find a way across, and quick. They've got one of them coming over here, and she's closer to her goal than we are." Sky pointed at Sammy, who indeed was moving closer to them.

"Maybe we should do the same, but aim lower," Shawn suggested.

Dave raised a questioning brow. "Aim lower? What do you mean by that?"

Shawn grabbed a fistful of Dave's sweater vest, and tugged him close. "I mean this." He pushed Dave down onto his belly, and grabbed the back of Dave's sweater vest with both hands. "Go get that flag!"

"What're you doing- aaaaaah!" The neat freak screamed as Shawn threw him across the ice.

"Good luck, Dave!" Sky called after him.

Dave slid past a confused Sammy, past Jasmine, who had finally gotten Topher out of the water, and into the Maggots' fort.

"Incoming!" Rodney exclaimed, raising a foot so Dave wouldn't collide with it. Scarlett had been loading another snowball onto the shovel when Dave slid right past her.

"One final touch, and my diabolical invention will- ouch!" Max deviously proclaimed as he tinkered with his helmet, but was interrupted by Dave crashing into him.

Dave rose to his feet, rubbing the side of his face that had hit Max. "Ow… the flag!" He gasped, seeing it a few feet away.

Scarlett's eyes went wide. "We can't let him leave the premises with that, or we lose. Rodney, stop him!"

"I'm on it!" Rodney declared, pointing a finger skyward before hurrying over.

The neat freak was about to reach out, and grab the flag, but was pulled back. Rodney had caught him just in time, and wrapped his arms around him.

"Hey, let me go! I don't know where you've been!" Dave shrieked, struggling to get out of Rodney's hold.

The country boy gave a proud smile. "Sorry, but you're not getting our flag."

"Ah, perfect timing!" Max's voice spoke up off-screen, causing the two boys to look over in his direction. Max stood in front of the beetle, who had just arrived, with his helmet in hand. "You will make the perfect minion now. Put this on!" Max thrust the helmet at the beetle.

The insect hissed, and spewed fire at Max. The wannabe villain dropped his helmet on the ground, and ran away from the beetle, calling 'Mommy!' as it gave chase. He caught sight of Rodney and Dave, and pursued them too. Rodney released Dave, and the three boys ran around, screaming and trying not to get hit by the flames. The fort started to melt slightly, and Scarlett poked her head out from behind the pile of snowballs yet to be used.

The genius redhead watched the attack for a few moments, and then spotted Max's helmet on the ground where he had left it. While the beetle's attention wasn't on her, she raced over to scoop up the helmet. She looked it over like she had done at breakfast, and noticed that while the construction of the device had been improved, Max still hadn't plugged a cord in. Plugging it in herself, she smiled as the red light on top turned on, signaling the helmet was functional. Spinning on her heel, she ran back to the boys.

The beetle stood in one spot, spinning around and around, spitting fire at the panicking boys. In his attack, the beetle failed to notice Scarlett sneaking up on him, and planting the helmet on. The reaction was instantaneous. The attack ceased, and the mutant insect stood rigid, its eyes glowing an even brighter red.

Scarlett smirked at the result. "Excellent," she said before gaining a more professional look. "I am your master. Attack the other fort! Burn it into nothing!" She ordered, pointing out the entrance.

The beetle obeyed, ambling out of the fort while Rodney, Dave, and Max all stopped panicking to watch in shock.

* * *

In the Rats' fort, Beardo held the team flag above his head while Sammy tried to reach for it.

"Come on, please! I need to get your flag!" Sammy pleaded.

Sugar laughed as she stood back to watch the show, "Hah, fat chance of that happening!"

"Oh dear, mister beetle is coming back," Ella fretted beside Sugar, causing the pageant queen to glance at her staring out the window. "Something's different about him, though."

The viewpoint shifted outside, and the beetle stopped a few feet away. He drew in a deep breath, and released a huge breath of flame. Almost immediately, the weak fort melted like ice cream in a microwave. When he was finished, there was nothing left of the fort but the contestants out in the exposed open, and water at their feet.

Shawn and Sky reached where Jasmine was with Topher, and the three not-frozen campers gasped in shock.

"Uh, can we rewind a sec? What just happened?" Beardo spoke up, lowering the flag from above his head and looking around at the others in confusion.

"What just happened was the Maggots won!" Chris declared, him and Chef walking over. The pair were once again dressed in their winter wear, and the hulk of a cook held a tray of steaming mugs in his hands. The rest of the campers not at the fort came over, with Jasmine pushing Topher's ice block across the ice. "And here's their reward, McLean brand hot chocolate- scald your senses with chocolatey goodness."

The Maggots pumped their fists, and cheered. The Rats slouched, and groaned in defeat.

While no one paid attention to the beetle, Scarlett discreetly removed the helmet from the insect's head. As he came back to his senses, he blinked around him confusingly.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

The redhead sat in the confessional with the helmet situated in her lap. "I was essential in today's victory. I came up with our plan to win the advantage, and I used that mutant insect as a pawn. Of course I wouldn't have managed the second victory without this contraption of Max's." She held up the helmet, and observed it. "While Max is a moron, he does have the makings of a potential inventor."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher opened up his confessional with a sneeze. "Achoo! Ugh, thanks to being stuck in that ice, I have a cold. I have to get rid of this, and fast. A future TV host can't be sick on TV. I'm going to need a lot of that hot chocolate."

* * *

Shawn, Sky, and Dave sat on the porch of their cabin as Sugar stood before them. Beardo and Ella were nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know about y'all, but I think Ella needs to take a hike," Sugar said to them.

"Why her?" Dave asked.

"Because she's a nonsense," Sugar promptly replied.

"…You mean a nuisance?" Dave clarified slowly.

Sugar pointed at him. "That too," she added, "and she's the whole reason we lost."

Both Shawn and Sky became more alert, but Sky was the one to speak up. "She was? How do you know that?"

"Because I saw her," the pageant queen confidently stated. "When that beetle thing showed up, she did her little song thing, and swayed it to go to the other team's fort. If she hadn't done that, that bug wouldn't have come back and melted ours."

Tapping his chin, Shawn nodded along with Sugar's explanation. "That does make a bit of sense. Ella likes to sing a lot."

"It's all true, and afro guy was in on it too."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

Sugar giggled to herself. "That totally wasn't true. It was afro guy that told the bug to beat it, and Ella did nothing. Man, I'm so good at lying, I should try and find a way to make that a talent for a pageant!"

* * *

At the campfire later that evening, the team was seated, and Chris had the ceremony going.

"Back at the ceremony already? I thought after you voted out your wizard pal, you'd be golden, but I guess not." The host chuckled as the team donned looks of dismay. Sugar, in particular, was offended by the mention of Leonard's elimination, and glared at the host. "The following Rats are safe…

"Shawn!" The conspiracy nut brightened up considerably as he caught a marshmallow.

"Sky!" The gymnast had to reach up high to catch her treat.

"Dave!" He attempted to catch it in his hands, but it ended up landing in his mouth.

"Sugar!" Unlike Dave, she intended to catch it in her mouth, and eagerly began to chew. "Which leaves Beardo and Ella," Chris summarized, causing the bottom two to appear taken aback by the revelation. "The Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom goes to…"

Beardo began to sweat, and Ella clutched her hands together, clinging to hope.

Shawn watched on, his expression set in a stoic form. Dave and Sky watched intently, both curious to know what the outcome was going to be. Sugar smiled darkly, almost as if she knew what the outcome was going to be.

"…Ella!" Chris finally exclaimed.

"Oh…" Ella sighed softly, lowering her head. Without knowing it, she unintentionally ducked under her marshmallow. "I thought I was doing so well."

Chris tutted at her. "Apparently not. Maybe this will serve as a lesson for you, there is such a thing as too nice in this game."

"It's better to be kind than mean, Chris," Ella responded as she stood up, and turned to face her former team. "So long, everyone. I'll treasure our time together. And, if you don't mind, I have one more song I'd like to sing. I didn't get to do much of that here."

"Uh, what?" Chris interrupted, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Huh?!" Sugar uttered, surprised as much as Chris.

A little tune began to play as Ella started to sing, " _My time on the show is finished and done, but that's not to say I didn't have fun. I'll do my best not to cry, but now is the time to say goodbye._ "

"Hey, I didn't okay a musical bit. Knock it off!" Chris shouted at her.

" _I came onto Total Drama, and gave it my best! I gave it as much effort as the rest._ " Ella gestured to her former teammates. " _So long, everyone. I hope you all have fun. I want you to know,_ " she continued to sing as birds came out of nowhere, and surrounded her, " _I had a lot of fun in the snow!_ "

Chef had gotten out of his hazmat suit, and Chris angrily pointed at Ella. Getting the order, Chef ran at the girl.

" _You all were nice, and a bit of spice."_ Ella sang, the birds lifting her up as Chef rushed her. Chef missed, and ended up colliding face first with one of the stump seats, to the shock of the remaining Rats.

The birds flew Ella down the dock, and set her in the catapult's bucket.

" _I'll do my best not to die,_ " the girl continued as Chris ran down to the dock with a scowl on his face. " _Because now I have to say goodbye-yyyyeeee!_ " The song ended with Chris pulling the lever, and the fairytale princess was flung into the night sky, along with the birds.

With Ella gone, Chris' scowl faded, and he appeared happier. "That's enough of that. Geez, it'd have been annoying if she sang more than she did. Tune in next time for more mutant mayhem and hilarious pain on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

* * *

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **This episode was not my best work. I couldn't find a smoother way to eliminate Ella anywhere else, so the whole climax of this episode and onward feels a little forced. Ella's thing is singing, and she hasn't gotten much of a chance to do that here, so I at least wanted to give her the sing-song goodbye she had in canon. Because she didn't have the same experiences as she did in her canon season, her goodbye song is a bit different. With the cast swap, she got the shortest end of the stick if you catch my drift. She couldn't get to episode six because she would win the second half of that episode very easily by singing to Sasquatchinakwa, and I feel the intensity of the season's second half would shatter her innocence, one of her most prominent traits.**

 **I aim to have the next episode up next week, but if it doesn't happen, expect it the week after, and that will set the pattern of episode updates for the future.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	4. TDRI Episode 4

Responding to reviews here seemed to work last time, and I actually like doing it this way, so I'm going to keep doing it. Here we go!

 **Michaelfang9:** Thanks for the review! Yeah, Beardo should've stayed instead of Leonard in canon. I feel he had more potential than Leonard did. Sorry that you're sad that Ella left.

 **Liz the Sweet Writer:** Yeah, Ella was unfairly eliminated in canon. The way it happened was dumb too.

 **Madness is a State of Mind:** Glad you enjoyed the episode! Yeah, Dave's going to flip over the next challenge, you'll see.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Yeah, Ella didn't get to develop. I think she's particularly hard to develop since she's so happy-go-lucky, and hardly shows any anger. If she was as emotional as fellow happy-go-lucky Owen, then maybe she'd be easier to do that for. As for Scarlett's intelligence, it seemed only natural considering B is about as smart as her and what he managed to accomplish in the canon episode. I suppose your reasoning about the helmet's effects could be interpreted that way, but in all honesty, I just had the beetle listen to her for the sake of making the Rats lose so Ella could be booted. I already messaged you about your question so that's covered.

 **sdgeek:** Thanks for the compliment!

 **SilentSinger948:** I'm happy that you're enjoying the story. Yeah, due to the challenges being so different from the ones they canonically participate in, they are allowed to develop at a quicker pace and change up the elimination order. Also yeah, Ella could probably win a lot of challenges later on in the season, and that's exactly why she had to go so soon. The season wouldn't be as entertaining if she aced them all like that, and there just isn't room for her in the merge.

 **VIPGuest:** I'm glad you enjoy the concept. I do too, and have since I thought of it back in 2015. I can't say anything about the merge, but I hope the group in the merge isn't too predictable. I'll see what I can do about making sure the challenges specialize strengths and weaknesses, I feel like I've done a good job of that already with Sky's gymnastics in the first two episodes, and Scarlett's intelligence in the previous one. I can't say about Dave/Sky because spoilers.

 **Fangren:** No need to apologize, life can get in anybody's way, and that's perfectly understandable. Yeah, Ella's song doesn't compare to her canon one, but since she didn't get to sing a whole lot in this story, I thought I'd at least give her the one song. In regards to the helmet, when I began planning the episode, I knew that the helmet would make a perfect component of the episode's story, plus it's fun to include nods to canon. Time will tell if people notice Scarlett's behavior, as it will if Topher's advice for Dave works or not.

With reviews answered, onward to the episode!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 4- Finders Creepers

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, the campers climbed a wall, and played in the snow. Max played with a toy of his own creation, and then Scarlett played with it to make her team win. Sugar had it out for Ella, and managed to convince her team to send Ella packing. Wish Ella didn't pack a song, though.

"And now," Chris narrated as he appeared onscreen with the moon behind him in the night sky, and a candle in his hand. "Tonight's challenge is about fear, and fear is a dish best served in the dark!" The host began to laugh spookily. He halted when he noticed something to his left. "Huh? Chef?!"

The scene zoomed out, showing Chef in a showgirl costume, complete with a peacock tail. "Wardrobe was all out of vampire costumes," explained the burly cook to his cohort's scowl.

The camera swirled around to face camp, and Chris walked away from his cook. "It's all scary," he continued his narration before jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at his friend, "other than that. Right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

Bubbles ran along the surface of the lake until they hit the beach, at which point they ceased, and a figure rose out of the water.

The figure was covered in algae and seaweed. They let out a monstrous growl. Some nearby animals, a really long-eared rabbit, a winged goat, and a three-eyed frog all panicked at the new arrival. Using its long ears, the rabbit took flight along with the winged goat. The three-eyed frog appeared to teleport away in a flash.

A flash transitioned to the sight of Jasmine, asleep in her tree with a length of rope around her foot. Shifting over to a tree a few feet away, Shawn could be seen wide awake with a length of rope around his foot as well. It seemed as if he had taken a page out of Jasmine's book, and tied himself to the tree to prevent himself from falling to the ground.

Blinking, Shawn looked around.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I've trained myself to stay awake as long as I can. You never know when the enemy might spring up on ya. That, and I heard noises coming from the woods earlier tonight. A mutant might've come and attacked."

* * *

The conspiracy nut jerked as he heard some rustling, and turned his attention to where the noise came from.

In the tree-line not too far away from him, as well as Jasmine and the cabins, he could spot an ominous figure trying to blend in among them. It was the same figure from the lake. Not knowing what it was, Shawn made the only conclusion he could.

"Z-z-zombie!" He cried out. Just after he screamed, a shrill noise pierced the air- a horn. Caught off-guard, Shawn yelped as he fell off his branch.

"Run! Run for your lives!" The voice of Chris McLean called over the noise.

The other campers burst out of their cabins, fully-dressed for some reason despite it being the middle of the night.

Sammy hurried out of the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin, asking, "What's happening?!" Seeing her teammates run down the porch, she followed suit. Max yelled out, "Evil overlords first!" while Rodney declared, "I'll protect you, Scarlett!"

On the porch of the Rats' cabin, Dave stood in confusion, scratching his head. Before he could open his mouth to ask any questions, Sugar bowled him aside so she could slide down the cabin railing while barking, "Outta mah way!" Sky screamed, rushing out of the girls' side of the Rats' cabin while Beardo came out making alarm clock noises.

The two teams found Chris standing in the common area in front of the cabins, and gathered in front of him. Jasmine and Shawn joined their teammates from the other direction as Chris released his hold on what appeared to be a blowhorn. Even after he stopped, Beardo was still going. Dave slapped him across the cheek to get him to stop.

"Good night, everybody!" Chris greeted with a cheeky smile.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher sat eagerly on the toilet seat with his hands moving about as he spoke. "So we're all sleeping soundly for a couple hours when boom! Chris wakes us up with that air horn of his. Now, it's too early for it to be the merge seeing as we've only had four eliminations, so I figured out that it must be a nighttime challenge! Every season has at least one."

* * *

As the footage went back to the gathering, Shawn stammered, "C-Chris! Something in the woods! Zombie!"

Chef rolled up a monitor to the group as Chris shook his head. "Silly Shawn, there's no zombies in the woods. Just a challenge!"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Called it!" Topher pumped a bragging fist.

* * *

Scarlett scowled at the host. "Cognitive function is dependent on REM sleep. If you want us to perform a challenge at optimal efficiency, then we should return to our slumber."

"Where's the fun in that?" Chris chuckled before getting down to the nitty-gritty. "Your challenge? A scavenger hunt for three creepy souvenirs. Your locations? A haunted forest, a spooky pet cemetery, and an extra spook-tastic cave. First team to each location gets a special clue. Watch out for booby traps, I really went to town with them. So move fast, and stick together! You'll be penalized for every player you lose," he explained, unintentionally pronouncing penalized like 'pee-nalized'.

Max chuckled, interrupting the host. "You said pee."

Tentatively, Dave raised his hand to ask a question. "What does the spider represent, exactly?"

"Oh yeah," Chris realized, "there's no zombies in the woods, just a giant, mutated spider sort of running loose around the island."

The answer stirred a lot of murmuring and whispering between the campers, voicing their protests and worries about the challenge and the spider.

"Well, that's just the gravy on top of the rotten mashed potatoes," Sugar complained. She turned to her team to complain some more, but the complaints died when she raised an eyebrow. "Hey, he okay?"

Beardo and Sky stared at Dave, who had his arms wrapped around himself and was quaking in place.

* * *

(Confessional- Dave)

"I hate spiders! They're a sign of dirty places! They hole up in unclean places, and weave their sticky, gross webs all over the place, like my grandpa's attic and basement!" Dave stated, curled up in a ball on the outhouse toilet seat.

* * *

Holding up his air horn, Chris quipped, "There's nothing to fear but mortal terror itself. Talk soon!" Briefly, he sounded the horn, and then the teams reluctantly started their jog into the woods.

The moon could be seen over the top of the woods.

The Maggots soon arrived at the base of a tree with a pit in front of it, and a loudspeaker snaked around the tree itself.

"Yay, we made it here first!" Sammy cheered lightly, not wanting to attract much attention in the dark forest.

The loudspeaker screeched to life with Chris' voice, "Welcome to the Haunted Forest! Your clue can be found at the base of this tree."

Jasmine kneeled in front of the pit, and hummed. "Anyone got a long stick?"

Rodney bent down to the ground, and picked one up. "There's one right here," he said, walking over and handing it to the explorer.

"Why did you need a stick?" Sammy asked right before she heard a metallic clang, and winced.

"Inside a bear trap," Chris finished with a laugh that quickly ceased when Jasmine showed the stick.

Pulling the stick out, Jasmine showed her team the stick with a bear trap clamped to the end. The stick, noticeably, wasn't as long as when Rodney gave it to her. "This is why," she answered, not even fazed by the trap. She threw it aside, and reached back down into the pit again, this time bringing up an envelope with her hand.

"Oh no," Sky moaned sadly as the Toxic Rats reached the post. "They beat us here."

Topher let out a laugh. "Yeah, we did. Advantage, Mutant Maggots."

His eyes darting every which way, Shawn urged, "Let's keep going. I don't think we're safe here with that zombie out on the loose."

"I agree with Shawn," Sky nodded her head. "About the 'keep going' thing, not about the zombie thing. Come on!"

The Rats jogged ahead further into the forest, and when they were at a decent distance from the Maggots, they came to a stop.

"Ugh, all this running is tiring me out. Can we sit down for a spell?" Sugar huffed, hunched over.

"Not here," Sky said, "we need to find out where the Maggots are going next. Everyone, find a place to hide. Maybe we can listen to the Maggots read the clue."

Shawn scrambled up into a tree, Sky and Dave jumped into a nearby thorn bush, and Sugar hid behind the tree Shawn climbed into. Beardo ducked behind a set of rocks next to the thorn bush, but was partially exposed due to his huge afro. Doing his best to sit still behind the rocks, he pretended his afro was also a bush.

Moments later, the Maggots walked through the clearing with Jasmine reading the contents of the envelope.

"Inside the knot is a nest, your souvenir lies with a pest, find Polaris to travel northwest," the Outback explorer read.

Adjusting her glasses, Scarlett explained, "Polaris is the north star." She looked up at the sky, and pointed. "It is there, which means we have to go in this direction," the genius pointed down a path.

"Great job, Scarlett! Let's go!" Rodney cheered, and the team ran down the path to the right.

Once they were gone, the Rats quietly came out of their hiding places, and hurried after their rivals.

* * *

The Maggots ran down a wide, open path. As they ran, the camera zoomed in on Rodney's smiling face.

"You're so smart. You know that, Scarlett?" Rodney asked, getting silence as an answer. He looked back to where Scarlett was trailing at the back of the group, but she was no longer there. Gasping, he skidded to a stop. "Scarlett? Scarlett!"

The rest of the team stopped with him, and Sammy let out a gasp of shock, "Oh em gee! The penalty Chris was talking about!"

Jasmine walked over to Rodney, and closely examined the ground. "This is strange. She left no traces of disappearance. How'd she manage that?"

"Forget about her, she was a terrible sidekick." Max scoffed from off to the side. "Look what I found!" He pointed at an upcoming tree with a big hole in it along with paint marks right under the hole. "A knot with a nest, you're welcome," The villain remarked smugly.

The rest of the remaining team ran over to join him. As she started to climb up the tree, Jasmine praised, "Good spot, Max."

Max smirked, folding his arms in front of him. "Naturally."

Reaching the knothole, Jasmine peered inside. "Hm, souvenir… souvenir… souvenir…"

To her surprise, a giant eye opened in front of her, and tentacles slid out of the other holes in the tree. The rest of the team screamed in fright as they were confronted with what appeared to be some sort of tree squid. The squid wrapped a tentacle around Jasmine, and pulled her away from the tree.

"Whoa, hey!" She yelped in surprise, struggling to pry the tentacle away from her midsection.

"We've got to help Jasmine!" Sammy declared, though thoroughly scared. Spotting some rocks at their feet, she bent down to pick them up. She quickly handed some to Rodney and Topher, the two nearest to her, while keeping some for herself. "Quick, throw rocks at it!"

Focused on Jasmine, the squid slapped and poked at her. It managed to poke her in the eye once, and after that, the explorer managed to grasp a tentacle and hold it in place.

Jasmine barked a laugh, "Hah, not so tough now, are ya?" She felt something hit her backside. "Hey, what's going on back there?!"

Rodney winced down on the ground. "Sorry," he apologized as he threw another stone. "Might be aiming too high."

"So what if your aim is off, this is hilarious! Keep doing it," Max delightfully ordered.

The squid eventually threw Jasmine down to the ground, and the rest of the team scattered as it swung its tentacles around. Max was unfortunate enough to be the squid's next victim, and he was hoisted up upside-down. He screamed in terror.

Sammy hurried to Jasmine's side, helping her friend up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I've been thrown around a lot worse," Jasmine confided, adjusting her hat back to its regular position.

The two jumped when they heard a screech, and looked up at the tree, shutting its eye in pain. Max, meanwhile, was slammed into the ground much like Jasmine was.

Holding a stone, Topher pumped his fist. "Hah, bullseye! Somebody get the souvenir!"

"I'll get it!" Sammy volunteered while Jasmine got her bearings. She hopped up to the tree, and climbed up to the hole. Reaching in, she pulled out the souvenir. "A key! The souvenir's a key! Hey guys, this must- aaah!" Something white and sticky latched onto Sammy's head, and stole her away, making her drop the key.

The key fell at Jasmine's feet, and she picked it up. "A key? You blokes have any idea what this- where's Sammy?" Jasmine looked up, and searched around the immediate area.

Topher's eyes went wide. "Oh man! We're getting picked off!" He exclaimed as the show switched to infrared vision briefly, detecting the remaining team members' body temperatures. "Huh, classic night challenge twist," he added with a touch of fondness.

The show switched back to normal vision, and Max and Rodney walked over to join Jasmine and Topher.

"Who cares if that goody-goody twin is gone?" Max huffed. "She and the sidekick were dead weight."

"No, they weren't," disagreed Jasmine sharply. "No team member is dead weight."

Rodney looked over his shoulder, and frowned. "Hey, you guys? We better get moving."

At that moment, the Rats arrived at the tree.

"Wow, down two people already?" Sugar asked with a chuckle. "You Maggots are going down faster than my cousins at my family's last Boxing Day feast."

Topher rolled his eyes, narrowing them at Sugar. "We are not down two people. Scarlett and Samey just went on ahead to see if there were any traps." He walked away, tugging at Rodney's hand to get him to follow. "Come on, let's catch up with them."

Jasmine nodded assertively. "I agree." She and Max followed the two boys away from the tree.

Beardo looked away from the Maggots, and spotted something. "Yo, team! I think this is it." He pointed at the tree. "Team colors!"

"Oh no! I am not looking in there. What if that spider is in there? What if it's already been zombified?!" Shawn protested immediately.

"Well, somebody has to," Sky spoke up in a calm tone, and looked between her teammates. "So, who's going?"

Sugar held up a hand brightly. "I volunteer Dave!"

"Wait, what?!" Dave questioned, blinking rapidly. Before he knew it, Sugar had him held above her head. "Wait, nononono!" Ignoring her teammate's pleas, Sugar threw Dave into the hole. "Aaah! Ouch!" There was a bit of shuffling in the hole, and then Dave poked his head out. "Hey, I found the souvenir! It's a key," he told his teammates while holding it out to show them. As he showed it, he noticed a tiny spider crawling across his hand and the key. "Ah, spider! Get it off, get it off!" In his flurry of motion to shake the spider off, he fell out of the tree to the ground in front of Sky's feet.

Sky smiled down at him, along with Beardo. "Nice work, Dave."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"On my first day here, I thought my team was a bit wild, and I couldn't say a word to them," Beardo recalled. "Now that it's been a few days, I think my team is pretty awesome when they want to be. Heck, I can even talk to them now."

* * *

While Sky crouched down to pick up the key, Beardo opened his mouth to comment, but the same white stickiness that took Sammy latched onto Beardo's afro, and carried him off before he could make a sound.

"Hey, Beardo? What do you think this key could be for?" Sky asked her teammate, standing upright once more. When she didn't get a verbal response, she looked next to her, and gasped. "Um, guys? Where did Beardo go?"

Rubbing his head, Dave stood. "Great," he sarcastically remarked, "the one time we actually want him to say something, he disappears."

"It's got to be the zombie!" Shawn griped, clutching his hat with his hands. "We made so much noise, and we're out here in the open for the taking. We're probably next!"

Sugar walked over to him, slapping him upside the head. "Get a hold of yerself, zombie guy."

Touching his face where he had been smacked, Shawn glanced at Sugar in surprise. "Did you just slap me?"

"Just to shut ya up, think nothin' about it," Sugar replied, and walked back past the tree. "Now come on, we gotta move if we're gonna beat those Maggots."

"What about Beardo?" Sky asked, holding the key in her hand.

"There's a spider, and maybe one of those zom-bee things running around. The longer we stay, the sooner one of them will find us. Now, let's go!" Sugar reasoned, pointing onward.

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"I didn't want to leave when Beardo could be left behind, but I had to believe Beardo was going to be fine. He's got a lot of hair, so maybe if the spider got him, it would just lay eggs in his hair as a second nest."

* * *

The remaining members of the Maggots ran down a forest path with Jasmine in the lead, followed by Topher, Rodney, and then Max.

"This trail is too quiet and peaceful," Topher said, "When is Chris going to give us another booby trap to liven things up around here?"

Jasmine rolled her eyes at Topher's remark. "We don't want another booby trap. Though, if it's like the bear trap, I could probably handle it."

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

Jasmine sighed at the start of her confessional. "I'm worried about Sammy. She's like this little sister I never had that I need to keep an eye on, and teach the ropes of survival to. I wish she were still with the team. Being alone with these boys is not all that fun."

* * *

Continuing to run, Jasmine vaguely noticed Rodney coming up beside her.

"Um, Jasmine, can we talk? There's something I need to tell you," the country boy began to say, jumping over a rock in the process.

Jasmine gave him a brief glance, and then said, "Bark it out, mate." She jumped over a tree stump.

"See, the thing is I think we should-"

"Stop!" Jasmine suddenly shouted.

Only then, Rodney noticed the unofficial team captain stop running. "What?" He asked before the ground under his feet exploded, sending him into the air with an orange blast. Rodney let out a scream, falling onto a clearly displaced mound of dirt. The moment he made contact with it, that one blew up, sending him back in the air. The process then began to repeat.

Jasmine watched with wide, incredulous eyes. Max and Topher caught up to her, watching in shocked awe as their teammate set off a bunch of land mines. After a few more blasts, the explosions were over.

Rodney, gray and covered in bruises, laid dizzily on the ground, surrounded by open holes in the ground.

At that moment, the Rats overtook the Maggots. Sugar let out a malicious laugh.

"Thanks for setting all those off, pardner!" She crowed, cackling while her teammates weren't laughing at all.

"No problem…" Rodney mumbled in pain.

Jasmine and Topher rushed over to him, visibly worried, and Max joined them a moment later, walking instead of running.

The wannabe villain scoffed, "Nice going, letting them take the lead."

* * *

Up ahead in area full of gravestones, a graveyard, the Rats entered. Tired from their run, they panted while the loudspeaker came to life.

"Welcome to the Wawanakwa Pet Cemetery!" Chris chuckled.

Sky spotted something near the loudspeaker, and pointed. "Hey, what's this over here?" She walked over, and found a coffin in a shallow hole. Seeing it could open, she pried at the two-flapped cover, and opened it. "Guys, there's numbers in here. Six, six, eighteen, six."

Dave scratched the back of his head. "So we have to look for some sort of code in a disease-ridden pet cemetery? This is the worst night ever."

* * *

A flash forward showed Shawn cautiously wandering throughout the cemetery.

"We really shouldn't be here," he said to himself. "Cemeteries are the first place a zombie appears. Oh, I really hope we don't meet that zombie here…"

"Boo!" Sugar exclaimed, popping up from behind a gravestone.

"AAAAAH!" Shawn screamed, and took off running.

The pageant queen laughed, slapping her knee and pointing in the direction Shawn ran. "Gotcha!"

Panting while he hid behind a tree, Shawn breathed out, "That… was not funny!" Even though he was not in Sugar's presence, he felt like saying it anyway. He shook his head. "Man, what is wrong with me? With that zombie out there, I'm even more on edge than normal," he sighed. "Of course, that spider out there doesn't help matters."

The camera's viewpoint switched to infrared, continuing to watch Shawn.

* * *

Elsewhere in the cemetery, Dave and Sky met up.

"Find anything?" Sky inquired.

"Only the most beautiful thing in the cemetery right now," Dave flirted with a grin.

Blushing at the comment, Sky opened her mouth to say something, and then she burped.

Dave's eyebrows shot up, not out of surprise, but rather excitement. "Did you just…"

Sky's face turned even redder. "Yeah, I did-!"

A familiar scream pierced the air, interrupting the moment. The two Rats gasped, "Shawn!"

They ran to where Shawn's scream was heard, and Sugar was already there. "Welp, guess it's down to the three of us now," Sugar shrugged, not at all concerned by Shawn's disappearance.

"We've lost almost over half the team now," Sky reminded her, "and you're not concerned by that at all?"

"Nope," the pageant queen answered, popping the 'p'.

Sky frowned at Sugar. "That is a really bad attitude to have about teammates."

Dave nodded, and mimicked Sky's frown. "I agree with Sky. That's really slimy."

Sugar hummed freely, ignoring the scowls of her two remaining teammates, "Eh, I've heard worse. Let's go find that code."

* * *

Elsewhere in the cemetery, Topher stood in front of a pile of coffins.

"Okay, this place has the ambiance, I'll give it that, but I'm disappointed in the lack of traps. Was Chris too lazy to put any in here?" He thought out loud, and pulled at the cover of an upright coffin leaning against the pile. Upon opening the coffin, he was met with the face of a grinning Fang. Yelping, he closed the coffin with a forceful shove. "Ask, and will receive!" The junior Chris ran off with Fang bursting out of the coffin in pursuit.

Kneeling next to a pit, Max admired it. "Ooh, a pit of doom! My future lair could use a pit like- augh!" As Topher ran behind him, he unwittingly knocked Max into the pit. The wannabe villain cried out as he landed with a splash in what seemed to be a brown liquid. Fang passed the pit, and continued after Topher.

In an attempt to escape Fang's range, Topher dove over a newly buried grave. Fang attempted to follow, but he clipped an upright shovel, and fell into the grave.

"Mm-hmm! I smell fries!" Sugar licked her lips, following a scent as she walked through the cemetery. She soon came to the pit Max was in. "Hey, is this where the smell's coming from?"

"Hello? Hello! Anybody? Your evil master needs some help down here! His undies are getting all soiled!" Max called out.

Sugar gasped, "Talking hole!"

"I'm not a talking hole, you imbecile! It's me, Max, your future overlord!"

"Oh, I know you! You're that funny little guy on the other team. Hey, are there any fries down there?" Sugar asked, ignoring Max's predicament.

"What?!" Max cried indignantly. "No, there are not! There's nothing down here but lots and lots of grease."

Sugar frowned, snapping her fingers. "Well, boo! I thought for sure there were fries 'round here somewhere. Stupid grease, playing tricks on my nose…" The pageant queen walked away in a huff.

"Wait! Come back here, and help me out of here, you insipid buffoon!" The same white, sticky string shot into the pit. "Ew, what is this? Looks like spider web-ah!" Almost in lightning speed, the string hauled Max out of the pit and away.

Chris chuckled, watching the action on a set of monitors while casually sipping a drink through a straw. On the monitor to the right of the one that depicted the grease pit, Jasmine seemed to have climbed up a tree in her search. On the monitor to the left of the pit's, Dave appeared to be vigorously rubbing his hands with sanitizer.

"Will anyone even make it to the spooky cave? And if so, how can they possibly make it to the finish line? Less brain, and more pain when we return!" Chris punctuated his narration with another slurp of his drink.

* * *

"Come on," Sky pleaded to no one in particular as she tried to find the numbers in any nook or cranny she came across. "Those numbers have to be here somewhere."

Behind her, Dave moaned in exhaustion. "This is hopeless," he exclaimed, "it's late, or early depending on what time it is, we're tired, and we're in a germ-infested graveyard that could give us who knows what kind of diseases." Walking away from Sky, he took a seat on top of a gravestone. "I just want this to be over already."

Sky went over to him. "I want this to be over too, Dave, but we can't give up. We're one person weaker than the Maggots, and we need to secure that immunity." Glancing down at the gravestone Dave was sitting on, she scrunched her eyes. "Wait a minute… Dave, move your legs."

Confused, Dave consented, "Um, sure?" Moving his legs, Sky could now see the whole gravestone's writing.

"June sixth, eighteen-o-six?" Sky read out loud. "Dave, I think this is it! We found it!"

Dave hopped off the gravestone, and looked at it. "We did?" He read the same thing Sky did, and his hopeless expression on his face became more hopeful. "Hey, we did!" He pumped his fist, facing Sky. "Oh yeah, who's the man?!"

* * *

(Confessional- Dave)

"That's one of the things I like about Sky," he told the camera. "Just when the challenge seems too tough, and it seems like a better choice to give up, she finds a way to give us a second wind."

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

Sky smiled to herself. "Dave's kinda cute when he gets excited. He's pessimistic about a lot of the challenges, but when we make progress like this- boom! He's happy, and seeing him happy is a nice sight."

* * *

Sugar walked over to the happy couple from the left side of the screen. "What's all the hubbub? You know there's another team here looking, right?"

"We found the location of the next souvenir," Sky told her, holding up the key. "We were just about to use the key, actually."

"Ooh, let me do it. A gentleman should be the one to unlock things for the ladies in the area," Dave took the key, adopting a suave tone. Before Sky and Sugar could voice any objections, Dave slid the key into a hole on the gravestone, and twisted it.

The reaction was immediate.

A coffin sprung out of the ground in front of the gravestone, and Dave was sent flying off-screen. Sky and Sugar winced at Dave's cry and crash.

The girls opened the coffin as Dave recovered, and found a number of flashlights inside.

"Flashlights… we must need these for the cave," Sky deduced, scooping up the flashlights into her arms. She stepped away, and looked at Sugar. "Sugar, could you put that coffin back? We don't want to tip off the other team."

"Might be a little late for that with you two's hollerin' but okay," Sugar shrugged, and shoved the coffin back into the ground. The two girls walked off to collect Dave, and head onto the cave.

The camera shifted over to a tree nearby, and Jasmine poked her head out from behind it. "Interesting… better round up the boys."

* * *

"Welcome to your final destination," Chris' voice greeted Sky and Dave, the two standing at a cave entrance with team flags positioned on each side. "Your clue is just inside the entrance, and down the tunnel into total darkness. Good luck!"

Sky glanced at Dave, who had an unnerved frown on his face. "Dave, are you alright?"

"No, Sky, I'm not. It's just… the spider could be in that cave. I hate spiders. Spiders, next to dust bunnies, represent all that is dirty and unclean."

The gymnast rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. Sugar and I will be right beside you the whole time. We'll get in there, find the clue and the souvenir, and get out as quick as we can. Okay?"

Dave gulped audibly. "I guess so… just one question, though."

"Yeah?"

"Where is Sugar?"

The pair looked around, realizing that their third remaining teammate was not with them.

"Hey, where'd Sugar go? I thought she was right behind us," Sky said.

"I stopped hearing footsteps a while ago, so maybe she stopped to take a break. We have been doing a lot of walking tonight," Dave reasoned. He turned back to the way they came from the cemetery. "I'll go and find Sugar. You stay here in case the Maggots turn up. We can't have you going in there alone if the spider is in there."

Sky nodded. "Okay, but hurry back."

"Yes, ma'am!" Dave chuckled lightly, giving a mock salute. He hurried back down the trail.

As Dave left, Sky stared at the cave entrance. "I know I told Dave I would stay here, but the clue could just be inside… and if the spider does live in there, it probably lives deeper in. Just step inside, get the clue, and get back out." Exhaling a deep breath, Sky steeled herself, walking into the cave.

Inside the cave, she shined a light on a skeleton hanging on a spider web. It was dressed in intern clothes, and had a note attached to its shirt.

"It was just inside like I thought! Yes!" Sky cheered quietly. "Feel bad for this poor guy, though." She peeled the note off the shirt, and read it. "By hook or by crook, the end is near if you look. What does that mean? Augh!" The sticky string returned, this time assaulting Sky from behind. It wrapped her up, and forced her to drop her flashlight and the clue. "Oh no, I should've listened to Dave!" She screamed as she was carried off.

* * *

"Sugar? Sugar!" Dave called, walking down a forest path between the cemetery and the cave. He soon found his teammate bending down in front of a bush. "Sugar, there you are. Come on, we need to hurry back to Sky. What are you doing?"

"Sometimes I get hungry in the middle of the night, and have a midnight snack." She held out a few oddly-colored berries she picked from the bush. "Here, try some of these. They're delicious."

"Sugar, those grew here! They've probably been mutated by toxic waste, or something. You have any idea what they'll do to your digestive system?!" Dave ranted, rather panicked.

"Nope," she shook her head, and popped a few more berries in her mouth, causing Dave to cringe. "What? Do I have juice smeared on my face?"

* * *

A flash forward brought the two into the cave, and Dave called out, "Sky? Sky!"

Sky's flashlight was found on the ground. "Oh no, Sky's flashlight! I told her not to come in here without us." He flicked the device off, saving the battery, and turned to Sugar. "First Beardo, then Shawn, and now Sky? Could this night get any worse?"

"Well," Sugar opened her mouth to answer, but was shushed by Dave's finger.

"Don't answer that," he hissed with a scowl.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Geez, that boy needs to learn to unwind. So what if most of our team got caught, or eaten, or whatever? At least we're still kicking!" Her stomach rumbled, causing her to fart, and then the confession came to a close.

* * *

"By hook or by crook, the end is near if you look. What do you think that means?" Dave asked Sugar, the two walking further into the cave.

Sugar shrugged. "I dunno, but that rock has a really weird hairdo." She pointed up ahead to a skull-shaped stone with hooks sticking out.

"Hey, those look like hooks. Those must be the last souvenir!" Dave declared.

Somewhere, Sky's voice called out, "Dave, watch out!"

Dave looked up. "Sky? Whoa!" He pushed Sugar back a step as he stepped back himself. A shot of white string hit the ground right where Dave had been standing. "That was close," he commented as the string retracted with nothing in its hold. He looked up, and his eyes lit up with glee. "Sky, you're okay!"

"We all are," Sky replied, shown tangled up in white webbing before the camera zoomed out. Everyone that had gone missing during the challenge were there. Scarlett, Sammy, Beardo, Shawn, Max, and Sky were all accounted for. "In a way, anyway."

"Not gonna lie, being the first one taken from my team sucks," Beardo commented.

"I agree with the sentiment," Scarlett agreed.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Of course, being picked off first has its perks," Scarlett personally amended in her confessional. "After doing all the work in the last challenge, it was like I was given a break this time around."

* * *

"Could someone get us down from here already?" Shawn cried out. "I'm really not looking forward to being that spider's midnight meal!"

The spider hissed from its perch on a stalactite.

"Scarlett, you're alive!" Rodney exclaimed as he and Topher led a shivering Jasmine onto the scene.

"And so are Max and Samey," Topher noted, looking up as well. He nudged Jasmine in her side. "Jasmine, look. Samey's alive."

"So small…" Jasmine whimpered with frightened eyes wide. She heard Topher's comment, and her panic subsided slightly. "Sammy?"

"Jasmine, help! Get us down from here!" Sammy pleaded, seeing her teammate and friend.

Jasmine's fear seemed to disappear a bit more, and she set her face in a determined expression. "I'm on it." She began jogging over to where the spider's web was.

"I'll rescue you, Scarlett!" Rodney boldly stated, following Jasmine.

Topher hesitantly followed his teammates. "Wait, shouldn't we go after the souvenir first?"

A devious smirk formed on Sugar's face, and she stuck her foot out in front of Topher.

"Oof," the wannabe host grunted as he tripped over Sugar's foot, and knocked into Rodney's back, causing both boys to fall over. With both of them down, the spider took the opportunity to wrap them up in webbing. "Ah, not the hair!" Topher panicked as they were wrapped up.

"Hoowee, that's a laugh," Sugar chuckled while Dave watched in horror. The pageant queen jogged ahead. "Come on, let's go get that souvenir!"

"What about Sky?" Dave asked timidly, "and the others?"

Jasmine came to a wall, and started to climb it. "Hang on, everyone! I'll have you down sooner than a kangaroo can kick."

"I think you might be a little late for that," Sammy replied in a frightened tone as the spider was now on the web, and crawling towards the captured campers. "Somebody do something!"

Seeing this, Shawn scrunched his eyes shut. "Just pretend it's a zombie. Pretend it's a zombie. Zombie!" He snapped himself out of his webbing, and flung at the spider. "Zombie!"

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Fear might not be a positive motivator, but it's one of the best motivators," the conspiracy nut noted.

* * *

Jasmine continued to try and climb the wall to reach the web, but without handholds, it was hard. "Come on, Jasmine! Get it together! Your teammates are in trouble, now's not the time to let your claustrophobia keep you from being on your game," She berated herself as she slid down the wall once more.

"Need some help?" Rodney offered, walking over with Topher stuck to his back via webbing.

The explorer smiled at him. "That'd be great."

"I still say we go for the souvenir, win the challenge, and come back for them later," Topher spoke up.

Rodney linked his fingers together to make a foothold. Jasmine placed her foot in it, and the country boy launched her up. On her way up to the web, she managed to land on Max, and pushed herself off him to get up a bit further so she was at the center of the web. The force of her leap off Max broke him off the web, and sent him down to the ground.

The wannabe villain let out a yell of pain as he hit the floor.

"That was amazing, Jasmine!" Sammy praised, smiling wide.

Sky nodded, "I think that jump was worthy of a gold medal."

Jasmine smiled at them. "Thanks, mates. Let's get you out of there."

Sitting up, Max found his webbing was torn, and was able to move his limbs again. He rubbed his head with one hand, moaning, "Ow, my evil head…" He blinked, noticing Sugar taking a hook from the rock. Max then stared up at the web holding the other contestants. He glanced back at Sugar, who saw a cliff with a rope line leading deeper into the cave. "Every evil genius for himself!" Rising to his feet, he hurried over to the rock.

Still stuck in the web, Scarlett saw what Max was doing, and her eyes went wide. "You fool! Don't! If you leave us here, we'll lose!"

"You still think this is a challenge? You're the fool!" Max argued, and removed a hook from the rock. "I'm not going to be spider food." He then ran over to where Sugar was.

"The penalty, Max, the penalty!"

"Zombie, zombie, zombie!" Shawn chanted, pounding away at the spider. The force of his blows started to break the stalactite the spider was hanging from.

Sugar looped the hook around the rope. "Sugar holla!" She exclaimed with glee, jumping off the cliff, and riding the rope down into the cave further.

"Die, zombie!" Shawn declared as the stalactite finally broke, causing the ceiling of the cave to start crumbling. Shawn, the spider, Jasmine, and the remaining webbed campers all fell, screaming. Rodney, Topher, and Dave shrieked, attempting to take cover.

At the end of the cliff, Max looped his hook, and jumped off the edge with a terrified cry of, "Mommy!"

The cave-in ceased, and the dust cleared. Everyone, except Shawn, was on the ground and broken out of their webbing.

"Everyone alright?" Sky asked. She got moans and groans of pain as an answer. Jasmine in particular had curled up into a fetal position, and was shivering.

* * *

In a dark part of the cave, only illuminated by the eyes of dark creatures lurking around, Sugar's eyes passed through the area as she gave an excited whoop. Max's eyes followed soon after hers, the wannabe villain wailing in fear.

Outside the other end of the cave, Sugar came sliding out.

"Yeehaw!" She hollered, coming to the end of her ride and dropping from her hook.

"Waaah!" Max yelped, hitting the unexpected end and also dropping from his hook.

The two seemed to have fallen on their backs, and as Max blinked, trying to process everything that happened in the last few minutes, he was shoved off by Sugar.

"Get off of me!" She growled, getting to her feet.

"I am off of you, fool!" Max retorted.

Before the two could descend into bickering, Chris walked over to them. "Well, well," he hummed cheerfully, "both teams made it to the finish line."

"Wait," Max got to his feet, "we still had a challenge going on? I thought with that spider attacking us, the challenge was off!"

"Nope, the challenge was always on," Chris replied smugly as Max paled even more than he already was. "Speaking of the challenge, the winning team is… the Rats!"

Sugar pumped a fist. "Booyah, that's how Sugar does!"

"But-! I thought-!" Max babbled, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Don't worry, even if you didn't totally abandon your team and even if you did get here before Sugar, you would've lost anyways. You lost five team members while Sugar only lost four," Chris delightfully explained, patting Max on the head.

Sugar cackled at the look on Max's face, and pointed at him. "You totally screwed up!" She began to howl with even more laughter.

"So true," Chris agreed with a nod of his head.

* * *

Back in the cave, Shawn coughed, walking over to where the spider laid. "Not my best fight- huh?!" His eyes went wide as he looked down at the spider.

The spider was torn open, and there were canisters inside along with no blood spattered anywhere. The whole thing appeared to actually be a costume. The most surprising part was the costume's occupant was none other than Izzy.

Dazed, Izzy noticed that she wasn't alone. "Oh, boo!" She started laughing.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Okay, so the mutant spider wasn't really a mutant spider after all. It was just Izzy from the first three seasons in a spider costume," Shawn summarized in the outhouse, and swatted a spider lowering from the ceiling. "So, I don't have to be concerned about that anymore, but I'm still concerned about that zombie I saw earlier. Wait, was it really a zombie, or just another person in a costume?" Confused, he started to scratch his head as he thought.

* * *

"So, fun night, huh?" Chris asked the Mutant Maggots, all of whom did not look happy to be at the bonfire.

"Oh, it was loads of fun," Jasmine answered sardonically, rolling her eyes.

"While it contained the classic night challenge twist," Topher spoke up, sounding rather critical, "the challenge could've used a different one, or added one. I mean, I'm no host, but that's what I would've done."

"May we please cut the chit-chat," Scarlett interrupted. "It is really unnecessary, and we all know who the blame for us being here is." She glared at Max, who scoffed and looked away from her.

Max argued, "We were being attacked by a mutant spider. It's like I said, in moments like that, it's every evil genius for himself."

Chris shrugged, "I would, but Chef hasn't shown up with the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom." He squinted his eyes, and scratched his head as he looked around. "Where is he?"

* * *

Elsewhere, Chef stood tied to a post, and a number of plungers stuck to his face. His expression set in a frown, he reacted as another one stuck itself onto his face. Across a small campfire pit from him, Izzy held a bow while wearing a tribal headband. She laughed uproariously at hitting her mark. Chef sighed in resignation of his current position.

* * *

"So, if Chef isn't here, does that mean the ceremony is canceled?" Rodney inquired.

Sammy agreed, "That would be nice. I want to go back to bed, and not have our team lose another member."

At Sammy's comment, Chris smiled. "Oh, but your team is losing a member tonight. Tonight's eliminated Maggot is tomorrow's new Rat." He pulled out some slips of paper, and glanced at them. "And according to your votes, the eliminated Maggot is Max!"

Max furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, so I'm not leaving the island? I'm just being put on a new team?"

"That's right! From here on in, you'll be competing against the Maggots!" Chris confirmed, earning gasps of shock from Rodney, Jasmine, Topher, and Sammy.

Barking out a huff of laughter, Max victoriously pointed his finger in Scarlett's face. "In your face, sidekick, or should I say, former sidekick! You will not be rid of your future supreme overlord so easily!" Scowling, Scarlett said nothing in response to the taunt.

"Whatever, Max. Kinda disappointed nobody's going for a catapult ride, though," Chris said, leaning on his oil drum podium, clearly bored by Max's outburst.

Topher dismissively waved his hand. "Just get one of the interns to do it. It's not like you care about keeping them around."

Chris' eyes lit up at Topher's suggestion. "Ooh, good idea!"

* * *

A flash forward saw Chris standing at the Hurl of Shame. Since Max was the eliminated camper, he chose the intern that resembled Max the most to hurl, namely the short, chubby one with black hair. Around his waist was a duck-themed floaty. In moments within being seen on camera, the floaty deflated. The intern quickly noticed this.

"Um, Mr. McLean, I need a new-!" He screamed as he was flung into the night sky.

"Not quite the same as hurling a camper, but still satisfying," Chris remarked with a smile. "Will anyone actually be hurled next time? How will Max fare with his new team? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

* * *

Another flash showed the Maggots returning to their cabin. Max was not with them, and the moment they reached the cabin's area, they paused their trek when they heard the intern's scream, which quickly faded.

"I'd say that was the intern that Chris decided to hurl," Topher casually assumed, and resumed heading to the cabin. "Good night!" He said to the others.

The others bid him good night, saying good night to each other as well, entering their respective sleeping quarters. Jasmine broke off from the group, and climbed up her tree.

"Good night!" Sammy said, being the last one to do so, and walked into the girls' side of the cabin.

The camera zoomed out, showing the boundary line of bushes and trees. Hidden in the bushes, a dark figure spied on the cabin. Some sinister notes played as the figure watched for a few moments before the show switched to the credits.

* * *

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **So, no elimination this episode. Some of you probably saw that coming. It's all part of the plan. Outside of science, Max is pretty much an idiot in regards to everything else. Him abandoning his team to the (actually fake) mutant spider is probably the most evil thing he's done in the game so far, or maybe the only evil thing he's done in the game so far. Max was also in a canon team swap so that works nicely.**

 **I had a systematic approach to the vanishing teammates thing. I wanted to spread around the spotlight a little better over the course of the season, and I thought taking out those that were most beneficial to their team in the last challenge early on in this one, such as Scarlett, the key component to her team's win last episode, getting taken out first. I also knew that Shawn, as a survivalist, would be hyper aware of his surroundings at all times, so I needed to shake him up to allow him to get caught. That's what the figure at the beginning was for. In addition, because ROTI is more action-oriented than team-oriented, I needed Dave and Sky to last a while in order to expand their relationship for the plot.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	5. TDRI Episode 5

**Liz the Sweet Writer:** Thank you!

 **SideshowJazz1:** Thank you, and it's okay to not have much to say.

 **Madness is a State of Mind:** I can't wait to see how Max does on the Rats either. We'll have to wait and see if someone experiences an elimination similar to Dawn's canon one.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **Rouge Tundra:** I'm glad that you enjoyed Sugar and Dave's interactions last episode. Yeah, taking Scarlett out first was a good choice, but I don't know if it would've made the challenge easier. Hope you enjoy where I take Dave and Sky's storyline.

 **SilentSinger948** : Yeah, the challenges really involve teamwork in ROTI. And yeah, Dave and Sky's relationship seems to be developing better. It has to do with the environment and the challenges.

 **sdgeek:** Glad you think Max and Sugar were a riot.

 **VIPGuest:** Thank you!

 **Fangren:** I agree with your assessment of Max swapping. I thought Dave having arachnophobia made sense since spiders tend to occupy dirty places, and I'm happy I was able to alleviate your fears regarding the mutant spider. Yeah, Shawn and Jasmine haven't been able to interact very much. ROTI doesn't provide many opportunities for inter-team interactions outside of challenges, but rest assured they will have more interaction in the future. Thanks in regards to your comment about the monster. I don't know why Rodney with Topher tied to his back made you happy, but I'm glad it did nonetheless.

Reviews have been answered. On with the episode!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 5- Backstabbers Ahoy

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, eleven campers went on a scavenger hunt that was spooky and very painful! Dave flirted with Sky, and Jasmine experienced some claustrophobia problems. Just when we thought it couldn't get any weirder, arachna-Izzy showed up to do an eight-legged tap dance for a captive audience and her friend Chef. In the end, Max did the most dastardly thing he had done yet, and left five team members behind, which got him put on the block. Instead of hurling the little freak, I put him on the other team.

"Hey, it's my show," Chris said while standing on the Dock of Shame. "I can do what I want. How will Max deal with his new team? Who will I hurl next, and how many times can I laugh at them before then? Find out now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

The loons crooned in the morning, and everyone was just minutes away from waking up. In their beds, Beardo and Dave slept peacefully in the boys' side of the Rats' cabin.

Unfortunately for them, waking up was not a few minutes away. Their eyes shot open when they heard a gravelly scream.

"Huh?" Dave grunted sleepily, not fully awake and tipping off his bed to the floor, resulting in a painful moan upon collision.

Beardo began to ring like an alarm clock until he brought his hand up, and slapped himself across the face, bringing the noise to a stop. He moved to get out of bed, and hopped down.

Laying on the center of the room's floor, Dave let out a yelp of pain as Beardo unwittingly flopped down on top of him.

"Is this how Chris wakes us up every day now? With some loud noise or some kind of scream?" The neat freak questioned, struggling to get out from underneath Beardo.

Still somewhat out of it, Beardo asked, "What's going on?"

"There are ants in my bed!" Max's voice answered, and that somehow woke up both original Rat boys. They looked up, and saw Max sitting in his lower bunk, which was crawling with ants all over it. "I'm not sure how they got into this cabin, but they picked the wrong bed to crawl over!" The wannabe villain brought out a magnifying glass, and held it up by the window at an angle. "Die, you probably mutant ants!"

He managed to focus a beam of light through the glass' lens, and aimed it at his bug-ridden bunk. As he attempted to burn the ants, he laughed at their presumed pain, only for that satisfaction to quickly become unsatisfactory when the bedsheets caught fire. Max gasped in shock at the unexpected occurrence, and gasped even further when the ants somehow managed to float into the air and form a boxing glove. Dropping the glass, he ran out of the cabin with the ant-formed boxing glove chasing after him.

Still on the floor, Dave and Beardo watched him go, listening to his screams fade into the distance.

"…We should probably put that fire out." Beardo said after a moment.

Dave gave him a look. "Gee, you think?"

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"So, how about that Max guy?" He said awkwardly. "Kinda surprised that Chris made him do a team swap now. Usually those happen in the second episode of the season."

* * *

(Confessional- Dave)

Dave squirted some hand sanitizer on his hands, and began rubbing it in. "At first, I thought I would rather have Leonard back than that Max guy, but then I figured, at least Max knows what's real and what isn't."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Okay, so I may have rounded up a bunch of ants and snuck them into Max's bed," Scarlett admitted in a straight manner. "Nobody taunts me with a finger in my face, and gets away with it. Regardless, that's not the worst retribution I've ever distributed. Years ago, my little brother pulled at my hair, and I programmed his remote-control cars to attack him every night. He's still in therapy." She had a sinister smile as she mentioned the last bit.

* * *

"Hey, Topher? You have any advice on girls?" Rodney could be heard asking as the view shifted to the Maggots' cabin, cutting inside to the boys' side.

Topher finished pulling his shirt on. "Depends. What advice do you need?"

Across from him, Rodney sat half-hunched on his bunk, hunched over because he did not fit under the top bunk. "Breaking up with a girl. See, I kinda hit it off with one of the girls, and-."

"Really? Which one?" Topher interrupted, intrigued by what Rodney was saying.

"Scarlett, but the thing is I was involved with Jasmine before her, and I'm having trouble telling Jasmine it's over between us. I can never find the right time." Rodney explained.

Topher tapped his chin, listening to Rodney's explanation. "You really want my advice?"

The country boy nodded earnestly. "Yeah, I do."

"Then my advice is dump her as soon as you can. Not only is it awkward for both parties if you're having trouble breaking up with them, it also brings down a show's ratings."

"But how do I-?" Rodney started to ask again.

"Bup bup bup, it doesn't matter where or what's going on, just get it over with. The sooner that's over with, the sooner the drama kicks in and the ratings go back up." Topher cut him off.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I've watched a lot of TV, and if there's one thing I know, it's relationship drama. I see it all the time. The problem with relationship drama in TV is sometimes it drags on for too long, especially when somebody has trouble spitting out how they feel. I hope Rodney fesses up soon, or this show's ratings could tank," Topher said, bouncing a stone off the wall of the outhouse, eventually stopping the game and holding the stone in his hand as he finished his thoughts.

* * *

Dave panted as he arrived in the bonfire area, and took a seat on one of the stumps. Noticeably, the pits of his sweater vest were stained.

"Working out is not one of my things," he exhaled. "Worst part is I didn't even see Sky once on that jog."

"Hey, Dave!" The voice of Sky greeted, causing the neat freak to look up as she jogged over. "What're you doing over here?"

Dave immediately stood upon her arrival. "Oh you know, just taking a breather from the jog I just did around the island," he chuckled awkwardly.

Sky smiled at him. "You jog?"

"Not normally, no, but when you're on an island like this with nothing else to do but wait for challenges, it doesn't seem like a bad idea." As he spoke, he noticed his stained pits, and hastily covered them up.

"Oh, when did you start? I got up pretty early to start mine."

Thinking for a second, Dave answered uncertain of himself, "Almost as early as you? I mean, what a coincidence that is. Too bad we didn't wake up at the same time. We could've jogged together."

"We could do that tomorrow," Sky suggested, at which Dave smiled brightly.

"Yeah! Yes, absolutely!" Dave readily agreed.

"Great," Sky nodded, and then looked over her shoulder. "So… if you're done with your jog, want to go get breakfast?"

"Sure!" Dave once again agreed in an instant.

Sky turned, and left the bonfire area. As she walked away, Dave pumped a fist, quietly cheering 'Score!', and hurried to join her.

* * *

At the edge of the woods, Shawn examined the ground. "Hmm, no footprints. Strange… zombies don't have the brain function to think of covering their tracks. Unless, my research is wrong…" He shuddered at the thought his zombie research being incorrect.

"G'day, mate!" Jasmine said, and Shawn looked behind him, and got to his feet. The Outback explorer walked over to him. "What'cha looking at?"

"Last night before the challenge, I thought I saw a zombie around here." Shawn gestured to the general area they were in. "I thought I would see if I could find any clues, but so far I'm not finding anything. It's weird."

Jasmine shrugged in response. "Chris could've just been trying to rile you up before the challenge."

Shawn shook his head. "I don't think so. Chris would've said something about it if that were the case, but he didn't." The conspiracy nut glanced around. "Something strange is going on here."

Sammy then walked onto the scene, both Shawn and Jasmine turning their attention to her. "Hey, Jasmine, have you seen my make-up bag? I can't find it anywhere."

While Jasmine shook her head, Shawn raised an eyebrow at Sammy's statement.

* * *

In the Mess Hall, most of the Maggots were already seated with their breakfast. Beardo was being served by Chef, and the hulking man slapped some bacon wrapped in some kind of meat, a chicken leg, and an apple onto his tray.

"Huh, I think this actually looks edible today," Beardo observed, and got a growl from Chef. Turning away from Chef, Beardo picked up a piece of bacon, and bit into it. At that point, Sugar approached him.

"Hey, do me a favor and distract Chef. He won't give me seconds, and I want seconds." The pageant queen marched into the kitchen as Beardo tried to protest.

"Don't drag me into-!" The sound of the loudspeakers made him cease.

"Attention, campers! Breakfast is cutting into precious time that you could spend getting injured!" Chris declared with a chuckle. "Grab your swimsuits, and meet me at the dock, pronto!"

Standing from their tables, the teams murmured their complaints about breakfast getting cut short.

"You have ten seconds to leave the Mess Hall before I release The Raccoon!" Chris added after they finished their initial grumbles.

"The Raccoon?" Dave asked out loud for everybody, and they all began to laugh until they noticed a large crate being lowered into the mess hall behind them.

They all stared at the crate momentarily before the door broke off, and revealed a giant, muscled raccoon inside. The creature roared at them, causing them all to shriek, and flee the building.

Well, almost all of them.

Sugar rolled a cart loaded with bacon, chicken legs, and apples out into the main room from the kitchen. "Well, I'll be! This tastes just like my granny makes!" She commented as she bit into a chicken leg. The raccoon's large form loomed over her, casting a shadow and catching her attention. Protectively, she spread her arms over the food. "Back off! This is all mine!"

Outside, the rest of the campers stood before Chris, glaring at him.

"What's the big idea? That thing could've killed us!" Shawn snapped.

Happily, Chris shook his head. "Nah, only if you came between him and food." Staring at the campers, he gave them an odd look. "Team Rat, still looks like you're missing a player."

Sugar screamed as she was chucked out the mess hall window, clutching an armful of food.

"Never mind," Chris amended.

* * *

A flash forward showed both teams on the dock with Chris, the Maggots on the left side of the dock and the Rats on the right side, and both teams were wearing their swimsuits. Each team also had a diving suit and a pump beside them.

"Alright, here to help us get today's competition under way, say hello to classic competitors- Geoff and Bridgette!" Chris introduced.

Rowing up next to the dock in one of their first season team's old canoes, wearing their swimsuits, the two greeted the campers.

"Yo, dudes!" Geoff shot a finger pistol their way.

"Let's get this over with," Bridgette grumbled, and then pointed at Chris. "Remember, our contracts said demonstration only."

Chris held up a hand to stop any further complaints. "Relax, no demo needed. You and your beach bum boyfriend just have to chum the water. Try not to get eaten."

Bending down in the canoe, Geoff held up a bucket with something green spilling over the side. "Whoa, rank! What is this stuff?" Geoff asked after gagging at the bucket's smell.

"Leftovers from last season," Chris smiled.

Geoff held the bucket away from his body. "Mondo gross, dude. Whoa!" Some of the chum inside the bucket fell into the water, and Fang rose to the surface, taking a bite out of the canoe as Geoff jumped back.

"So not cool!" Bridgette cried out as Geoff protectively spread his arms out in front of her.

Ignoring the couple's fright, Chris started to explain, "Challenge, part one- Each team must get a pair of water skis in an underwater mission, or drown trying.

"One victim- I mean, camper, will snag the skis in an old-school diving suit," Chris held up one of the diving suits, "and float them to the surface while the rest of their team pumps them oxygen." He held up one of the pumps. "First team to surface their skis wins, and gets an advantage in part two."

The teams dispersed, and the focus centered on the Maggots first.

Holding the head of the diving suit, Jasmine spoke up, "Okay, we need someone to go down in the suit, and it can't be Rodney or me."

"Why can't it be you or him?" Topher inquired.

"Remember the cave in the last challenge? I get claustrophobic, and Rodney's too big for the suit." Jasmine gestured to Rodney's large frame.

Topher nodded. "Then I'll stay up here too, in case we need to keep Rodney on task. Right?" He nudged Rodney in the arm.

Rodney blinked at him before realizing what the junior Chris was getting at. "Oh yeah, that'll work!"

"So, that leaves Sammy and myself," Scarlett deduced, looking at the cheerleader. "If it's alright with you, I think I will handle this challenge. I was taken first last time, and wish to not appear to be expendable."

Sammy looked at her in surprise. "Oh! Well, okay, sure! I was kinda nervous about getting in the suit anyway." Sammy prodded her index fingers together sheepishly, looking down at the suit.

At the other end of the dock, the Rats gathered around Sky, who was holding the diving suit. "So, we need one person to get in the suit while the rest of us pump. Any volunteers?"

"I'll do it," Shawn offered, "I need to see if it's possible for a zombie to walk underwater."

"Fine by me, I bet something this old is riddled with germs," Dave commented, pointing to the suit.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"All of my research on zombies says that zombies can't travel through water, but with what happened last night, I can't be too sure," the conspiracy nut said.

* * *

Scarlett and Shawn were dressed in the diving suits, standing on either side of Chris. "Ready? Go!" The host declared, and the two contestants jumped in the water, slowly floating to the lakebed. Feet ahead of them, they could see the rocks that their teams' skis were tied to. Glancing at each other competitively, they started to wade their way.

Just as Shawn had gotten his start, he felt a tugging on the tube of his helmet connecting him to his oxygen supply. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Fang holding the tube. He let out a shriek of fright. Fang let go of the tube, and swam at Shawn. His survival instincts kicking in, Shawn reeled his fist back, and socked Fang right in the nose. The shark recoiled, and held a hand to his nose. After feeling the tender bruise, he growled at the boy. "Oh man," Shawn griped.

Up on the dock, Sammy kneeled as she tried to watch Scarlett. Topher stood beside her with his arms folded.

"Come on, Scarlett! You can do it!" The cheerleader twin supported.

"Hopefully, she's not the only one," Topher quipped, peering over his shoulder. The viewpoint shifted a few feet to Topher's right, where Jasmine was pumping and Rodney was… standing on the pipe that connected the pump to Scarlett's helmet.

Rodney awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he tried talking to Jasmine, "So, Jasmine, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about for the last few days."

"Really now?" Jasmine asked, intrigued.

The country boy nodded his head. "Yeah, see the thing is we… I mean, I… you and ice…"

"Mate, you're babbling a bit," Jasmine pointed out, continuing to pump and not noticing the growing air pocket in the tube.

He shook his head. "Right, sorry. The thing I'm trying to tell you is…"

Down in the lake, Scarlett had almost reached the team's skis when she paused, gasping for air. Realizing how low on oxygen she was, she yanked at her tube to send a signal to her teammates above the surface.

Rodney and Jasmine were too distracted by talking to notice, but Topher wasn't. He walked over, noticed the pipe, and shoved at Rodney. "Dude, move! You're standing on Scarlett's line."

Tipping over, Rodney topped on top of Jasmine, and the pair fell to the floor, forcing Jasmine's hands to leave the pump handle while the air pocket in the hose made its way down to Scarlett. Scarlett inhaled a breath of relief when the air got to her.

"What's the big idea?" Jasmine grunted as she tried to get out from under Rodney. Due to Rodney's large frame, however, he was heavier than she could push. As she tried to wriggle out, her eyes met his. She got a confused look on her face when she saw the look on his face. "Um, mate? Mind moving a little?"

* * *

(Confessional- Rodney)

"What was I thinking? Scarlett's not my dream girl. Jasmine is! She swept me off my feet!" Rodney exclaimed, holding his hands to his heart.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

Jasmine shrugged while sitting in the outhouse. "Rodney's a nice fellow, big and strong, but he has a problem with barking out what he wants to say."

* * *

At the Rats' pump, Sky pumped the bar up and down, consistently giving Shawn air.

"You're pretty good at that," Dave complimented, standing beside her and watching her.

Sky blushed at this. "Oh, it's nothing. It makes me think of push-ups, but standing up." Her stomach gurgled, and she let out a burp much like the one in the previous challenge. "Sorry, that was probably gross."

Dave held up soothing hands. "It's okay. I know you only do that when you're nervous, or you like a guy. Just out of curiosity though, which one is it?"

Next to him, Max groaned. "I'm bored! Someone end this challenge soon so we can get on with it!"

Beardo made a gesture with his hand. "Do you want to take a turn pumping?"

Max scoffed at the human soundboard. "Evil doesn't do manual labor. They make others do it."

Walking over, Sugar giggled. "You're funny, short guy! Got any more jokes with that routine?"

"Routine?!" Max practically screeched in offense. "Listen, you-!"

Down in the lake, Shawn wrestled with Fang, rolling over and over through the water as they went. Eventually, Shawn shoved Fang away from him, and the shark attempted a charge. Timing it just right, Shawn managed to jump out of Fang's way. With the momentum of his charge, Fang darted straight for the rocks holding the skis, which Scarlett was already at and attempting to unlock her team's skis. Fang crashed into the rock holding the Rats' skis, and inadvertently freed them to float to the surface.

As the skis emerged, a boat horn sounded while Chris called, "The Rats win the first challenge!"

* * *

Over at the mess hall, Chef whistled a tune as he finished cleaning up the mess that the raccoon made. He dumped the scraps in the trash, and tied the bag shut, hauling it out of the bin. Swinging the bag over his shoulder, he kicked open the back door of the kitchen, and went outside.

The hulking man circled around the side of the building, and discarded the bag in a metal trash can, slamming the lid on top for emphasis that the trash was taken out. He turned around, still whistling his tune when he heard a crash inside the mess hall.

"What the?" He muttered out loud, and hurried back into the kitchen. Upon re-entering the kitchen, everything seemed the same, except for the refrigerator door being wide open. "Somebody been raiding my fridge?!" The chef roared, and stomped over to it. He sniffed the area around it, and grumbled, "I smell make-up." Glancing down at his feet, he saw something else that could be a clue to the culprit.

At his feet was a blonde hair. Picking it up, he scowled.

* * *

"The Rats were the first to grab water skis," Chris announced to those gathered at the dock, "their reward? A McLean-brand speedboat to use in part two of the challenge!" The geeky, braces-wearing intern drove up in a dark red speedboat.

The Rats cheered at this reward, and Max rolled his eyes at his new teammates' excitement.

"And for the Maggots," Chris gestured to a yellow, inflatable life boat with a pirate ship steering wheel driven up to the dock by the intern with spiky hair. "A totally leaky dinghy."

The Maggots groaned, lowering their heads at their prize.

Scarlett walked onto the scene, holding the diving suit's helmet in her hands. "I apologize for failing you all," she apologized as her teammates looked at her, "but I do have a question. Was there a problem with the air hose? I experienced a cutoff from oxygen down there." At Scarlett's words, Rodney cringed.

Chris held up two fingers. "Part two of the challenge- a death-defying water ski race! The goal? Be the first to ring four bells on these four totally harmless buoys."

One of said buoys, actually water mines, was shown in the water with a bell attached on top. Bridgette and Geoff rowed on-camera, Bridgette doing most of the rowing while Geoff appeared to be either chumming the water, or trying to scoop water out of the canoe. As much as Bridgette tried not to hit it, the couple ran into one of the mines, causing it to blow up. The couple screamed as they were blown sky high.

Geoff, slightly burned from the explosion, slammed into an actual buoy, and held onto it to avoid sinking into the water. "Bridge was right! So not cool!"

Back on the dock, Chris chuckled, correcting, "Make that three bells!" Bridgette screamed, landing beside Chris on the dock, slightly burned as well. "See, you totally got to demo the challenge. Who will cry for their mommy, and whose cries will be drowned out by explosions? Find out when we return!"

Bridgette coughed as the show faded to black for commercial.

* * *

The show faded back in after commercial, and Chris began to speak. "Before the break, the Rats got dibs on a sweet speedboat, which they'll need." Shawn and Sky bumped fists at that. "Meanwhile, the Maggots are stuck with a leaky dinghy that couldn't float in a kiddie pool."

"Ooh, sick burn!" Beardo quipped off-handedly.

"Choose one person to drive, one person to operate the gull cannon, and at least three to ski," Chris instructed further.

Sammy glanced up at Jasmine. "Did he say 'gull cannon'?"

The host chuckled, "Yeah, you heard me." Taking out a remote, he pressed its button, and a machine gun, loaded with odd-looking seagulls, rose up in each boat.

"How diabolical!" Max gleefully commented as the cannons whirred to life.

"Each team gets three chances to shoot the bells, or the other team, especially the other team." Chris sent both teams a sneaky look, as if he was expecting them to do the second thing more than the first.

Kneeling on the dock, Scarlett prodded at the container of gulls. "These seagulls look different. They must be mutated." She pulled her hand back when one of the gulls in the container hissed at her.

Chris answered, "You're right, Scarlett. They're half seagull and half rattlesnake, and have paralyzing venom."

"Fascinating," Scarlett said quietly, staring at the mutated seagulls.

"Whichever team hits the most bells wins!" Chris concluded his explanation.

Sammy immediately raised her hand. "Ooh, I'll drive! I've had lots of practice driving when Amy made me drive her all over the place when she was too lazy to do it herself."

"I'll man the cannon, then. I'm a right crack shot," Jasmine volunteered, joining Sammy in getting in the dinghy.

Topher glanced at Rodney next to him. "I guess that leaves us to ski with Scarlett. You mind if we sit on your shoulders? They're big enough."

Rodney shrugged at him. "Um, sure, I guess."

"I'll drive," Shawn declared, jumping in the seat.

"And I'll sit next to you," Dave took the second seat. "it's safer than everything else."

"I call the cannon! Only someone as evil as me is worthy of operating it," Max stated, grabbing the cannon's controls, only to find a problem with the arrangement. "I'm going to need a boost."

As Max figured out his problem, Beardo, Sugar, and Sky stood on the dock with the handle for the skiing part and the skis themselves.

"I guess we're skiing," Sky concluded.

"This is perfect! I can show off my talent for water skiing, not that I've actually water skied before." Sugar said, modeling her bikini swimsuit.

Wordlessly, Chris held up his blowhorn, and turned it on, signaling for the challenge to start. The speedboat's engine revved up, and the boat zoomed away from the dock, pulling the three Rats and the skis with it.

The Maggots' dinghy slowly started up, and started moving. Rodney was on both skis, and Scarlett and Topher were on his shoulders as planned. However, due to the lack of momentum from the dinghy, they sunk in the water the moment they got in it.

"Woohoo, what a rush!" Shawn exclaimed as he drove.

Beside him, Dave appeared to be worried with the way he was clutching his seat. "Can't we slow down a little? This is a little fast!"

Once the Maggots were at a decent speed, the skiers were able to glide across the water as they were supposed to. Unfortunately, their newfound bliss at the situation was crushed by Fang's scary appearance.

"Crap! Go faster!" Topher hollered to Sammy.

Sammy looked back at him apologetically. "It doesn't go any faster! Sorry!"

"Well, do something!" Topher yelped as Fang came up for another attack, only for a seagull to hit the shark before it could touch them. "Huh?!"

"We're not having any of that," Jasmine said sternly, her cannon aimed in the skiers' direction before swiveling it forward. "Now, let's hit those bells."

"Make sure your aim is precise!" Scarlett advised over the wind. "By using that gull to take out Fang, you're down to two!"

On the Rats' boat, Max laughed. "Look at them! Trailing behind… this will be easy!" He aimed the cannon in front of him. "Alright, bell, prepare to be rung!" Firing the first gull, he grinned… which quickly turned into a grimace when a cry pierced the air.

Standing up with the gull's beak sunk into his back, Shawn shouted, "Zombie! The zombie bit me! Z-zombie…" He fell unconscious, and slumped over the dashboard.

"Shawn!" Dave yelped, and reached over to help him.

"Woopsies… guess my aim was off…" Max mumbled while prodding his fingers together sheepishly, not wanting to attract attention.

Not too far behind, the Maggots raced through the water to the first bell.

"Hey, it looks like the Rats are getting out of our way!" Sammy noted with surprise.

Jasmine smiled in response. "That's good. That'll make this easy." She fired off her second shot, and rang the first bell, causing the mine to explode.

The team let out a mix of cheers and screams of terror from being so close to the mine when it went off.

"Alright, we're in the lead!" Rodney cheered. Up on his shoulder, Scarlett looked behind them.

"In points, maybe, but we're about to physically be behind," she said.

The Rats zoomed past them, with Dave struggling to get Shawn into the passenger seat while driving with his foot. Max was still at the cannon, and Beardo and Sugar rode on one ski each, with Sky sitting on the latter's shoulders.

"Just sit there, and take it easy," Dave advised, finally getting Shawn into a sitting position and sitting down to drive the boat.

"My daddy makes soup for monkeys…" Shawn unconsciously said, slumped over in his seat.

Looking back at Max, Dave ordered sternly, "Max, you have to hit the next two bells with your last two shots!"

Max scowled at him. "Don't tell me what to do! I was already going to do that! Now, duck your head!" He prepared to aim, Dave yelping and ducking as told, and then fired.

The gull shot through the next bell, and the conscious Rats cheered as they sailed by.

"Awesome! Just one more, and we're taking home the gold!" Dave commented.

Shawn murmured something, half-asleep, and then his eyes shot open. "Zombie!" His arm flew out, and decked Dave.

Dave clutched his face, crying 'Ow!' as he fell over and out of his seat. Without anyone driving, the boat slowed down, and the skiers eventually caught up to the boat, falling into it. The Maggots took advantage of their accidental stop, and cruised by them in their dinghy.

Rodney whooped, "Alright, we're back in the lead again!"

"Will the Maggots have this in the bag, or will the Rats make a surprise turnaround? We'll see after the break!" Topher narrated.

Scarlett gave him a strange look. "You do know we already had a commercial, right?"

Beardo, Sky, and Sugar groaned, getting to their feet along with Dave in the boat.

"What happened?" Sky asked, looking at Max. "Why did we stop?"

Max pointed at Shawn. "Blame him! He punched our driver in the face!"

"It was the cheek," Dave corrected, feeling where Shawn had punched him. "He wouldn't have, and would still be driving if you hadn't shot him in the back!"

"Mom says video games are bad for brains. She lies!" Shawn randomly blurted out in his stupor. After his statement, Sugar giggled at him acting goofy.

Beardo mimicked a coach's whistle. "Okay, time out! We lost our skis, and we're behind! What do we do?"

Sky thought for a moment. "I think I know how to fix this. I'll drive, Dave and Sugar ski on Beardo since he's biggest, and Max and Shawn stay where they are. Agreed?"

"I have a couple of concerns about this," Beardo uneasily started to argue.

"Max, you're down to one shot," Sky turned to Max, and gazed at him. "Make it count!"

"Of course, what do you take me for? A fool?" Max scoffed.

* * *

A flash forward had the Rats back in the challenge, with Sugar skiing on Beardo's back while Dave stood behind her, and Sky driving the boat.

"Woohoo!" Sugar hollered. "This is workin'!"

"For you maybe!" Beardo quipped, and then winced. "Ow, water burn!"

Scarlett glanced back at the Rats over Rodney's shoulder when she heard the other team's motor start up again. "It appears they are back in the challenge," she noted, and turned to face the Maggots' dinghy. "Hurry and hit that bell!"

Jasmine clicked the cannon, but nothing happened. "I'm trying! I think it's jammed or something!"

"What?!" Sammy looked back at her friend. "But how are we supposed to-?!"

"Rock!" Jasmine pointed ahead, causing Sammy to face the front again. The cheerleader gasped.

The Maggots' dinghy flew up a ramp-like rock, and the whole group crashed into a larger rock a few feet away. Sammy fell on the highest point of the rock, Jasmine on the boat, Scarlett and Topher in the water, and Rodney on a small rock breaching the surface of the lake. The cannon was also busted, and the last rattlesnake-seagull was out of the cannon and on the dinghy, dazed as the rest.

"Ulp! Hurts so bad…" Rodney moaned, his private area hitting the rock.

The mutated seagull squawked in agreement as the Rats sailed by in their speedboat. Sugar laughed at them as she passed.

"I am so glad that we're not them," Dave said, looking back.

On the boat, Sky removed one hand from the steering. "Look, there's the last bell! Get ready, Max!"

Max saw the target up ahead, and began aiming.

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"You know how seconds are on the clock when you're down to your last play in lots of sports? It sort of felt like that. It felt like a rush," Sky compared.

* * *

Max cackled, "Fire in the hole!" He shot the last mutated seagull in the cannon, and almost immediately, he cringed at the sound of a feminine cry.

The camera panned over to the right, showing the driver's seat of the boat.

Sky was standing, and clutching onto the windshield while the seagull's fangs sunk into her back. "K-Keith… Keith… Keith…" She then collapsed onto the floor.

"Oh, come on!" Max complained after getting over his initial shock. "I thought I had it that time!"

Unfortunately, as Sky's foot was still on the gas pedal, the boat kept moving.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sugar called out as the boat started to cruise around willy-nilly. "Someone, do something!"

At this, Max hurried up to the driver's seat, and tried to take control. At the same moment, Shawn blinked sleepily.

"Uh, what? What's happening?" The conspiracy nut asked.

At the Maggots' crash site, they were all slowly recovering from the crash.

"I'm really sorry, guys." Sammy apologized. "I shouldn't have looked away."

Jasmine shook her head, and looked up at the cheerleader's perch. "It's not your fault. It was an accident. It could've happened to anyone."

Topher lifted one of his hands out of the water, and pointed. "Hey, isn't that the last bell over there?"

The camera shifted over to the remaining mine.

"Yeah, it is!" Jasmine agreed, and looked down at the dazed gull. "And we still have one of these fellows left." She picked it up, the creature thankfully too stunned to attack her. "Sorry about this, mate!" Reeling her arms back, she chucked the mutant at the mine.

As it flew through the air, the bird regained consciousness, and noticing its situation, squawked frantically while failing to backpedal mid-air.

With what appeared to be precise aim from Jasmine, the bird successfully flew through the bell's zone, and it dinged. The entire mine blew up in an explosion of water seconds afterwards.

On the Dock of Shame, Chris watched through binoculars. "Ka-boom! Haha!" He laughed.

* * *

A flash forward had the two teams back on the beach. "The Mutant Maggots win!" Chris announced, and the team weakly cheered after their long swim back to shore.

Sammy beamed, looking up at her teammate. "Nice shot, Jasmine! Thanks to you, we won the challenge!"

"Ah, I'm just being me- a right-crack shot." Jasmine winked while smiling at her friend.

Rodney blushed, saying, "You can take a shot at me, anytime."

Next to the country boy, Topher blinked, and glanced at him. "Say what now?"

Further up on the beach, the Rats gathered around Sky.

"Hey, I think she's coming to," Dave said, leaning in for a closer look. "Sky?"

Sky opened her eyes sleepily. "Uh, Keith?"

The viewpoint switched to Sky's perspective, and while she could see her teammates, they all seemed normal, except for Dave, who appeared to be well-muscled.

"Sky, you okay?" Dave asked in a suave tone.

"Uh, what?" Sky blinked, snapping back to her senses. As she blinked, Dave went back to looking like he normally did.

In a more concerned tone, Dave asked again, "You okay?"

Sitting upright, Sky looked around as her teammates backed away to give her space. "What happened? I remember driving the boat, and then nothing."

"You blacked out, just like I did," Shawn informed her. "You got a gull to the back."

"And we lost the challenge too," Beardo added solemnly.

Sky pounded her fist on the sand. "Ugh, really thought we had that one!"

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"The last two times we've lost, I wasn't in control of the team." She stated, "Shawn led us in the snow fort challenge, and now in this challenge, we lost after I went unconscious." The gymnast groaned. "I like my team, but can they really not win without me?"

* * *

Sky stepped out of the confessional, and started heading back to camp. After she was gone, Sugar poked her head out from behind the outhouse.

"Sounds like someone's got an ego," Sugar snorted to herself. The pageant queen then donned a malicious grin. "Wait until the others get a load of this!"

A flash forward saw Sugar standing in front of the Rats' cabin, and Beardo, Shawn, and Max were sitting on the steps.

"And then she was all, 'Can they not win without me?' or some crap like that. Can you believe that chick?" Sugar asked the boys.

"Me being in charge of the team was so not the reason we lost the snow fort challenge!" said Shawn. "It was that beetle that Ella made friends with that made us lose that one."

Max crossed his arms, huffing. "The nerve of her to believe she is in charge of the team. I'm the one in charge, obviously."

At that moment, Sky and Dave walked over to their team.

"Hey, guys. What're we talking about?" Sky inquired.

Beardo stood up from his seat. "We were talking about how we can't win a challenge without you." Sky gasped in shock.

Sugar gave her a confirmatory nod. "Heard ya talking in the outhouse."

"Sugar, that outhouse is the confessional. That's only meant for our private thoughts. You had no right to eavesdrop," Sky glared at her.

"I didn't eavesdrop. I just happened to overhear when I came close. There's a difference," argued the pageant queen.

Dave attempted to interject. "Hey, hey, let's not get mad at Sky. She's not the problem here. Max is!" He pointed at the wannabe villain. "He hit two of our drivers with gulls today."

"Not on purpose, you ingrate." The wannabe villain rolled his eyes. "The cannon's aim was off."

"Even so, you did what you did," Dave pointed out, and then gestured to Sky with his hand. "At least Sky has come up with plans that have helped us before."

"Yeah, helped us lose!" Sugar heckled.

Sky scowled, speaking up, "Hey, my ideas helped us try to win!"

The sound of a foghorn put an end to the arguing, and the team stared at Beardo.

"Okay, clearly we all have an idea of who should go, and that's the end of it. Let's all just chill out in our separate ways, and just get ready for this ceremony," suggested the human soundboard.

Shawn nodded, and got up from his seat. "Best idea I've heard all day." He got off the steps, and started heading to his tree.

The rest of the team dispersed. Beardo and Max disappeared into the cabin, Sugar went off to the mess hall, and Dave and Sky were left standing in the clearing. Sky slouched, putting her face in her hands, and Dave placed a comforting hand on her back.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"What Sugar told us about Sky hurt a bit, and I really don't know what's best for the team's future," Beardo sighed. "I have to make a decision, though. We've got a ceremony pretty soon."

* * *

That night, all six of the Rats sat in the same row, the first one. Sky sat on the left corner, with Dave on her right, Shawn to his right, Beardo, Sugar, and then Max at the right corner.

"After an episode full of water and explosions, it's the Rats that have exploded the most," Chris stated from his oil drum podium. He picked up a marshmallow from his plate. "The following players are safe… Beardo!"

The hairy teen caught his marshmallow with slight hesitation.

"Shawn!" Even more hesitant than Beardo, Shawn caught his.

"Sugar!" Unlike the first two, Sugar was happy as she received her treat.

"And with one vote against him… Dave!" The neat freak was rather alarmed that he had gotten a vote, but still managed to catch his invincibility symbol. "We're down to Max and Sky. Max, your lousy cannon skills have your teammates questioning your usefulness."

"The cannon was off!" Max defended once again.

"Sky, you seem to think your team can't win without you in charge," Chris continued, ignoring Max's outburst. "Your team doesn't seem to like that kind of thought."

Sky threw up her hands. "Nobody was supposed to hear that!"

Chris smiled at the two remaining campers' reactions. "The Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom goes to…"

Max and Sky's eyes widened, anticipating the announcement of the named camper. Max actually appeared scared, evidenced by the beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead. Sky clenched her fists tight.

Chris opened his mouth.

The two campers shot looks at each other desperately.

"…Max!"

Releasing the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, Sky exhaled in relief while Dave smiled at her comfortingly.

Meanwhile, Max ducked as the glowing marshmallow flew over his head. Once the danger had passed, he stood up with a fierce look in his eye. "Revenge! You shall regret ever having met me, Chris McLean!"

Chris blinked at him, and then shrugged. "Little late for that."

"The pain I will inflict on you will-!" Max was cut off by Chef grabbing him by the front of his jumpsuit. "Um, let me go and I will give you a good position in my world takeover?" He tried weakly. Chef forcibly tucked him under his arm, and started carrying him down to the dock. "Let me go! I will swear vengeance!" He shouted, futilely kicking his legs at the air.

Sugar snickered as Chef carried him off. "Wow, even when he's getting eliminated, he's still funny."

Down at the Hurl of Shame, Max sat in the bucket of the device. "I hope you're happy, McLean. Once you get rid of me, you won't have the most evil villain on your show anymore."

Chris laughed next to the lever. "Yeah right, I can think of, like, ten people on this show that are more evil than you."

"Blasphem-meeeeee!" Max wailed as he was flung into the night sky.

Chris smiled, turning to the camera. "That's one villain gone, I guess. He wasn't so much of a villain, but I guess he did bad things. Will Sky's relationship with her team be strained? Will Rodney ever pick a girl? And which team will lose next? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **With that, Max is officially gone. Max is a funny character, I won't deny, but I felt that he long overstayed his welcome in canon. If it wasn't for Sugar tattling on Ella to Chris, Max would've been gone when he should've been. In comparison to Scott, who purposefully shot at his teammates, Max did it on accident, mostly due to his height.**

 **Sugar appears to be stirring the pot a little. What does this mean for Sky? And Keith has been name-dropped too, a number of episodes before he canonically would be.**

 **Since Dakota is not present as an intern, I brought in Geoff to fill her spot. It seemed like a logical choice since Bridgette cameo'd. Also, apologies for making everyone wait an extra week. The next episode has been giving me plot troubles. It's not even halfway done yet, but I didn't want to leave everybody hanging for another few minutes, or another few hours.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	6. TDRI Episode 6

**sdgeek:** No need to feel that way about your previous review. Sometimes there isn't much to say, and that's okay. That said, I appreciate your thoughts about everything.

 **SideshowJazz1:** I guess you could say it is a canon similarity. I can't say much about it now because reasons, but everything will be clear in due time.

 **Eternos137:** Yes, things will be intense. As for whether the Keith thing will be problematic, we'll have to wait and see.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Interesting assessment. I suppose Zoey and Sky are counterparts in a way. Yeah, Sky is in the game for herself, but she got distracted along the way whereas Zoey wanted some friends. It says something about people's goals and how they affect a person's gameplay.

 **Madness is a State of Mind:** Thanks for the review! Yeah, I think given his knowledge of reality TV, Topher would be a bit genre savvy and try to apply what he knows to the situation. I guess it would be fair to say Dave and Sky are nearing Mike-Zoey waters, but of course they have a rock in the way.

 **VIPGuest:** Considering Fangren is a fantastic writer, I'll take that as a compliment!

 **OmniPlanckInstant:** Yes, it indeed was a close one. Max is entertaining, but there is such a thing as overstaying a welcome, and I didn't want him doing that.

 **SilentSinger948:** Thanks for the review! We'll have to see if things go as you think.

 **Fangren:** I'm glad that you like Topher giving Rodney advice; it's like I told Madness, I think Topher would be a bit genre savvy about TV and try to apply his knowledge of that to the situation. I'm glad that you enjoyed Shawn punching Dave. I needed a little something to keep up the challenge drama, and it seemed so obvious. I'm also glad that I managed to surprise you in regards to which team winning the challenge and who would be eliminated. You might be on the right track with the votes. I didn't really think much about it, I mostly had a vote in for Dave to prevent a tie. I've been thinking about it, and here's how I think the votes went- Shawn and Sky voted for Max because he shot them with gulls, Dave voted for him in support of Sky, Max and Sugar voted for Sky because of her comments, and Beardo couldn't pick between them so he voted for Sky's supporter, Dave. Either that, or Beardo voted for Max with Dave and Sky for making them lose the challenge, Shawn and Sugar voted for Sky for what she said, and Max voted for Dave because he tried to return the attention to him. Your scenario is probably the more likely one.

 **Codammy Forever:** Thanks for reading! I've pretty much figured out my TDAS cast, and even if I would go with your suggestion, I can confirm that Codammy would not happen.

Now with reviews out of the way, let's move onto the episode!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 6- Runaway Model

"Previously on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, the campers got deep with an underwater scavenger hunt," Chris narrated over footage of Shawn and Scarlett descending to the bottom of the lake in the diving suits, followed by footage of Shawn being attacked by Fang.

"Rodney and Topher attempted to sort out Rodney's love life." The footage changed to Rodney attempting to talk to Jasmine while standing on Scarlett's air hose. "And they only seemed to make more of a mess of it," Chris added over a shot of Rodney falling in love with Jasmine again, to Topher's shock and confusion.

Max was then shown with his new team. "Max switched over to the Toxic Rats, and his stupidity was toxic! Hehehe!" Sky was then shown getting knocked out, and then her ranting in the confessional. "Sky got upset with her team's loss, which Sugar overheard and told the rest of the team."

The footage showed Sugar talking to the team, and them getting mad at Sky before transitioning to the elimination ceremony. "In the end, Max was voted off for making one too many 'evil' mistakes. Not going to miss that guy."

The recap footage ended, and Chris was shown on the dock. "Though Sky was safe for the day, will she still be in deep water? Find out right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

It was mid-morning when the camera opened up on camp. It panned down to show the mess hall and the communal washrooms. Rodney and Topher appeared to be outside the washrooms, and waiting.

Holding a hand over his private area, Topher rapped a fist on the door.

"Come on, hurry up! Guys have to use the bathroom too, you know!" He called through the door.

Beside him, Rodney was hunched over, both of his hands over his private area. "Maybe we should just dig a hole, and do our stuff in that. It's what I do back home when my brothers are hogging the bathroom."

"We are not doing that," Topher replied sharply, giving Rodney a disgusted expression before knocking on the door again. "Come on! Open up!"

Inside the bathroom, Sammy apologized, "Sorry! We'll be out in a minute." She turned to face the other two occupants, Scarlett and Jasmine. "Anyway, as I was about to say, you look pretty happy today, Scarlett."

Finishing some adjusting to the bun her hair was in, Scarlett faced Sammy with a pleasant smile. "What can I say? I took note of the Rats' ranks this morning, and I'm pleased to report that Max has been eliminated. That little imbecile has been a thorn in my side since day one."

"At least you have something to be happy about," Sammy replied, and held up a hairbrush. "First my make-up, and then my clothes have gone missing. This hairbrush is the only thing I have left besides my pajamas. What's going on around here?"

Jasmine shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure, myself, but perhaps we'll figure it out soon."

* * *

Over in the Rats' cabin, Shawn could be heard in the boys' side of it. The camera zoomed in on the cabin as Shawn was heard saying, "I'm telling you guys, something's not right."

In the cabin, Beardo sat on his bunk bed with Dave sitting on the top one. Shawn stood in front of them with his hands extended.

"First I see that zombie in the woods on the night of the night challenge, then we don't find any tracks, and now that cheerleader girl over on the Maggots' team is losing her stuff. Something bad is going on; I can feel it," he told them.

Dave raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you're not just being more paranoid than usual? Ever since the night challenge, you've been kind of antsy. Who knows? Maybe all of that stuff you listed is just coincidence. The island's already bad with the mutated flora and fauna, and the rundown campgrounds involved. We're in danger just by being here."

Shawn shook his head. "I refuse to believe that everything happening is just a coincidence." He looked down at Beardo. "Dude, back me up here."

Beardo stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I don't know. It's possible something could be going on, but it's also possible this is just a string of coincidences. It could go either way, really."

"I think it's more likely more than just coincidence," Shawn refuted with a scowl. Rolling his eyes, he stormed out of the cabin. "I'm going to look for more evidence."

The two other male Rats watched as the cabin door slammed.

"He really needs to lay off caffeine," Dave quipped, "and get more sleep." Beardo nodded, also humming his agreement.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Shawn's a cool guy and all, but sometimes I wonder if he's just too deep into his own head," Beardo remarked in the outhouse, tapping the side of his head for emphasis. "That girl on the Maggots' team, though. Her involvement in his crazy theory makes it sound a bit more plausible that something bad really is going down."

* * *

The loudspeakers screeched to life. "It's challenge time! Campers, meet me at the other side of the island!" Chris declared.

A flash forward brought the scene to the amphitheater used in the first season. The Maggots occupied one set of bleachers while the Rats occupied the other.

Sky approached the Rats' bleachers. "Hey guys, mind if I sit with you?" She asked Dave and Beardo, who were sitting on the upper level.

Sugar huffed, crossing her arms. "I dunno. Maybe you shouldn't so we can prove we can win a challenge without you."

"How does that even make," Sky began to say before correcting herself, "Never mind, I was talking to Dave and Beardo." She gestured to the two boys in question.

"She's still here," Beardo shrugged, "it's her choice."

Dave gave Sky a smile, and beckoned her up. "Sure, you can sit with us."

Grateful to Dave, Sky climbed up to sit next to him. As soon as she sat down, she frowned at Sugar, who glared back up at her.

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"So, I said something I apparently shouldn't have," Sky said, looking off to the side before directly looking at the camera. "How was I supposed to know Sugar was listening? The confessional is supposed to be private!" She threw her arms up, and then sighed. "I really have to find a way to fix this, or I'm going to be sent home next."

* * *

The amphitheater was altered to include a runway with a table and three seats behind the table. Clothing racks and suitcases were on the stage, and Chef, wearing the same pink dress he wore for the Gilded Chris ceremonies in season two, stood on the stage. The contestants heard the sound of a jetpack before they saw it.

Chris descended onto the stage, wearing his jetpack, along with a black suit and tie, sunglasses, and a white wig with hair pulled into a ponytail.

"Welcome to your challenge, the Weird and Wild Fashion Spectacular!" Chris announced, allowing Chef to take his jetpack and pulling a paper fan out of his suit to fan himself.

"Fashion?" Sugar gasped gleefully. "Well Chris ought to just hand us the win right now. I'm great at that!"

Dave leaned over to Sky, a smirk on his face. "The way she dresses and does her hair says otherwise." Sky giggled quietly.

Topher jeered, "The white hair is really showing your age, Chris!" His teammates glanced at him as he made the verbal jab, and then they all winced as Chris' blowhorn sounded.

"Zip it!" Chris snapped, lowering the horn and raising his fan to wave again. "You won't be walking the runway. No, no, no. No amount of fashion can help you people." He chuckled, "Here's how it's going to work- each team gets a wardrobe of clothes, a make-up kit, and ten minutes to dress and make-up a model which you will send down the runway to be judged by myself, Chef, and today's Total Drama classic competitor- Lindsay!"

One of the suitcases on the side of the stage popped open, revealing the blue-eyed, blond-haired former contestant. "Yay! Don't you just love my new, special fashion judgy shoes?" She asked the campers, raising a leg to show off blue boots different from her regular brown ones.

"Wait, so we get to dress an actual model?" Sammy inquired, growing excited at the prospect.

"Uh huh! Right after you catch one," Chris nodded.

Jasmine looked perplexed for a moment. "Catch a model? That shouldn't be too hard."

"Oh, it'll be hard," Chris replied, walking across the stage. "Because you won't be catching human models, no. You'll be catching models that live in there!" He pointed towards the woods, forcing Lindsay to duck her head. A roar sounded from within the forest as if on cue. "They're wild, they're mutated, and like me, hate teenagers."

The campers looked at each other in concern as they realized that their models wouldn't be the regular kind, and that they'd have to catch one of them.

"Okay, fashionistas," Chris brought out his blowhorn once more. "Go!" He pressed down on the horn, and the teams ran off into the woods in search of a model.

* * *

The teams started searching the woods. Dave searched a bush, and Beardo lifted up a rock to look underneath. By a tree, Scarlett and Sammy watched from the ground as Jasmine investigated a tree.

On a tree branch sat the same three-eyed frog from two episodes ago. Without warning, Jasmine dropped down onto the branch with her hat in her hands, slamming it down over the frog. Giving a triumphant cry, she peeked under the rim of her hat, then frowned as she lifted up the hat. There wasn't a frog underneath it. "Wha?"

The frog zapped into existence on top of her head, causing her to look up as it flashed away again, taking her with it this time.

The frog warped them into empty air, and Jasmine gave a startled cry as she fell to the ground while the frog teleported away in the same moment.

Shawn approached what looked like a giant turtle shell with a broken branch. He poked it with the branch, and a tail whipped out of it, taking hold of the branch and tugging Shawn in. A giant turtle emerged from the shell, and punched Shawn away, clearly annoyed by him touching it.

Elsewhere, a beaver sat nestled between some rocks and bushes. Rodney spied on the beaver from behind the bush for a moment before leaping out and wrangling it into his arms.

"Gotcha!" Rodney exclaimed, but quickly found himself pulled upward. The camera zoomed out, and showed that the beaver was actually a fake that was attached to a land-walking anglerfish. The country boy yelped in fright.

Scarlett's eyes went wide, and she took off in a sprint in the other direction. Rodney quickly followed her, and he was followed by the roaring anglerfish.

* * *

As the search continued, the camera zoomed in on a slice of pepperoni-topped pizza, which was surrounded by a loop of rope. The heeled shoe of Sugar entered the shot, and she asked, "Pizza? What's pizza doin' way out here?"

The scene zoomed out to show Sugar scratching her head. Her eyesight followed the rope to where it was attached to a tree that Fang was hiding behind with an axe.

She snorted, "Who leaves a fine slice of grub out here?" She bended over, and grabbed the slice. At that moment, Fang cut the rope, causing the rope to tighten around her wrist. "What the hay?!"

Fang emerged from behind the tree, licking his chops.

Sugar rolled her eyes upon seeing the shark. "You again? Shouldn't y'all be livin' in the lake?"

Instead of responding to Sugar, Fang settled for rubbing his hands together in anticipation of his awaited meal. Then, he heard a cracking sound, and his eyebrows shot up as his sight landed on the rope.

The pageant queen also looked up at the rope, which apparently couldn't hold Sugar's weight as it rapidly frayed from the strain. Soon, it snapped, and Sugar fell with a mighty 'Thud!'

Unfortunately for Fang, he ended up being Sugar's landing cushion. Sugar grunted, recovering from the fall, and saw that she was still holding the pizza from the trap. A wicked grin crossed her face, and she jumped to her feet. "Hah!" She laughed, and pointed at Fang. "You just got Sugar'd!" Taking a bite out of the pizza, she ran off.

Recovering from the impact, Fang snarled.

* * *

Somewhere else in the woods, a giant, muscular two-headed rabbit pounded on a wooly beaver while a laser squirrel shot beams out of its eyes in the background. A rather huge crab ambled over to the group of mutants, snapping its claws.

From behind a bush afar, Rodney, Jasmine, and Sammy observed them.

"This is so hard," Sammy said hesitantly, "which one do we use?"

"How about one that's small and can't shoot lasers out of its eyes," Jasmine suggested, apprehensive for once.

Behind them, Scarlett spoke up, "I may have a solution." The trio twisted their heads around to face their genius teammate.

They saw the same long-eared rabbit from two episodes ago chewing on leaves.

"It is small, inoffensive, and appears to be unable to kill us," Scarlett explained.

"Great idea, Scarlett!" Sammy smiled as the trio walked over to her. "What about the ears?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out with that. Let's get to work," Jasmine decided.

Rodney blinked as his female teammates started to approach the creature, and looked around. "Hey, has anyone seen Topher?"

* * *

Sky stood in front of her team, though she seemed a bit hesitant in doing so. "Come on, you guys, there's got to be something on the island we can use as a model."

Peering over a bush, Sugar suggested, "How about that big fella over there?"

The viewpoint shifted to what Sugar was seeing. The big, hairy, and purple form of Sasquatchinakwa sauntered into his cave.

"I don't know. He seems a bit big for this," Sky pondered as the camera pulled back to show the team watching the yeti.

"I dunno, either." Beardo agreed, "How would we even catch it?"

Shawn grinned at his teammates. "Leave that to me. I've got an idea."

* * *

A flash forward had the Rats back at the amphitheater. Shawn dug through the wardrobe on the stage, taking articles of clothing and stuffing them into a duffel bag.

"So, what exactly is your plan?" Dave asked, watching his teammate.

"I'm a trap master. I've built lots of traps for zombies back home, and I have an eye for detail from my bakery job. I think I can put together a trap, and get the yeti dressed in a decent outfit," Shawn said, examining a hat and then putting it in the bag, closing the bag with a finalized zip.

Beardo raised an eyebrow. "You're sure this is gonna work?"

The conspiracy nut nodded, "Positive. If I can catch that yeti, what can't I catch? Oh, and I'm going to need your sound skills. Can you make a yeti noise?"

"I think so."

"Good," Shawn tapped his chin. "Okay, I think that's everything. Let's head back to that cave."

* * *

"Well, what do you guys think?" Sammy inquired as the scene switched back to the Maggots, the camera's attention focused on the rabbit.

The rabbit was dressed in a Maggot-red cheerleader uniform. It held little white pom-poms, and the Mutant Maggots' team logo was stitched onto the front of the uniform. Somehow, the Maggots had managed to tie the rabbit's extra-long ears up, making the ears look like hair done up in a ponytail.

Scarlett hummed as she stood with her teammates, staring at their model. Sammy had a nervous smile on her face, Jasmine's smile was more genuine, and Rodney looked a bit confused. "Normally, I would be averse to the stereotypical appearance of a cheerleader, but we do not have the time or the resources to make other costumes so this will have to suffice."

"I think it looks great," Jasmine stated, and patted Sammy on the shoulder. "And you were saying how you weren't very good at this."

Rodney nodded, "Yeah, what she said." His face then took on a look of panic. "I mean, what Scarlett said, not that Jasmine isn't right, but I just agree with Scarlett more, and…" The country boy babbled.

Sammy blushed, interrupting Rodney's babbling. "Oh, I wouldn't say I was saying I wasn't very good at this. It's just Amy says stuff like that all the time. It's no big deal."

"Three minutes remaining!" Chris announced over the loudspeakers.

Jasmine turned to her team. "We'd better go back and get ready, and find Topher, wherever he went."

* * *

A fair distance away from where the Maggots had been preparing their model, Chris lounged in a chair under an umbrella, watching as an intern rolled barrels of toxic waste around and drinking some pink lemonade out of a coconut cup.

"Oh, intern!" Chris mockingly called. "When you're done cleaning up the environment, I need another drink. Thanks!"

The intern, a geeky, braces-wearing girl with black hair, rolled her eyes, and continued rolling the barrel to where it was supposed to go. As she left the area, the camera panned over to a tree, where Topher poked his head out from behind.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"So, these past few days, I haven't had much of a chance to talk to Chris as I'd like. He's always been watching challenges from afar while I'm stuck with my team doing them," Topher elaborated, "but since we were able to split up this time around, I decided to take the opportunity."

* * *

Chris sat in his chair, tapping his finger on an armrest with his drink in his other hand. "How long does it take for an intern to move a barrel?" He asked out loud before groaning. "I might as well pour another drink myself." He reached for the pitcher of pink lemonade on a stand next to him.

"Let me get that for you, Chris." Topher walked onto the scene, picking up the pitcher before Chris could.

"Thank you, Topher. Refill!" The host thrust his cup at the boy.

"Anything for the best host on TV," Topher obliged, and poured some lemonade. "You know, that is a great outfit you're wearing today."

"I know, picked it out for myself."

"I can tell. It suits you. Say, is the white hair a wig, or no?"

"It's a wig," Chris answered, briefly taking a sip of his drink. "My real hair isn't long enough to pull off the ponytail." He raised his hand to the hairstyle in question.

"Oh, good. I was worried that your hair was going white prematurely, especially with the silver streaks I've been seeing." Topher put the pitcher down, and put his hands on his hips.

At that, Chris spat out some lemonade, sitting up straight. "Silver streaks?!"

"You haven't noticed them? I could really spot them yesterday down at the dock. The sun was shining very bright yesterday, so it made them pop out a bit."

Chris' eyes went wide underneath his sunglasses, and he jumped out of his chair, something making a clattering noise in the process. "Intern! Somebody! Get me a mirror!" He ran off quickly in a panic.

Topher smirked to himself as he watched Chris flee. "A seed has been planted." He looked back at Chris' chair, briefly entertaining the idea of lounging in it and finishing off Chris' lemonade for him, but he blinked upon noticing something. "What's this?" He picked up a gray square-shaped object off the seat, and flipped it open. "Whoa! Is this Chris' cellphone?" His eyebrows narrowed in a devious expression as his fingers pressed a few buttons. "Hm? Chris has a number listed for the paparazzi? Interesting…"

A flash forward showed Topher now backstage at the amphitheater. Leaning against a crate, he typed away on the phone. He glanced up from the phone screen, and momentarily panicked, quickly closing the phone and shoving it into his pocket.

"Hey, guys!" He greeted as his teammates approached, attempting to look casual.

"Where have you been?" Jasmine questioned, frowning at the junior Chris.

Topher shrugged. "Oh, just running an errand for Chris. I didn't know where to look for you guys after I was done, so I just came back here to wait. Are we all set?"

Rodney nodded, "Yeah! We found this rabbit, and then we dressed it up."

"See?" Sammy held up the rabbit.

Looking at the rabbit, Topher nodded. "That'll work. When we present, let me do the talking. I can give our presentation a little flair."

"You'd better, otherwise you ditching us to do something for Chris will give us reason to send you home if we lose," Scarlett frowned.

"Harsh," Topher remarked, frowning right back at Scarlett.

The team looked upward as they heard Chris over the loudspeakers, "One minute remaining!"

* * *

Beardo cautiously approached Sasquatchinakwa's cave. "Here goes nothing," the human soundboard mumbled to himself. He took a deep breath, and then accurately did a series of grunts that sounded like they could've been coming from the yeti himself.

Inside the cave, he heard a loud roar.

"That doesn't sound good," Dave commented, peeking over the edge of a large rock. "What'd you say to him?"

Beardo looked at Dave helplessly. "I have no idea." Looking back into the cave, he gasped, spinning on his heel. "Run!"

* * *

Several stage lights flickered on as grand music began to play. A bear reading a book looked up, revealing its three eyes, to see what was going on, and was soon joined by a laser squirrel.

"It's freaky forest fashion time!" Chris declared on the amphitheater's stage. At a table in front of the stage, Chef, decked out in a rapper's outfit, and Lindsay sat in chairs with the last chair, Chris' chair, unoccupied. He turned around, and addressed the Maggots, who were coming out onto the stage. "Maggot-teers, show me something fierce! Chef, drop that needle!"

At the table, Chef started up a turntable, and put the needle down on a record. Pompous fashion show music began playing the moment the needle touched the record.

Clearing his throat, Topher announced, "Every team needs a mascot, and what better mascot than a cheerleader!" He gestured to the rabbit, now hopping into the open. "Inspired by one of the team's very own members, this rabbit sports a cheerleader's top and skirt with pom-poms in its paws for extra fluffy effect. The ears are also long enough to act as hair, allowing it to be molded into different styles while also taking away the caution needed in regards to tripping over its own ears, allowing a successful performance whether it be on a runway, or a sporting event."

The rabbit hopped down the runway, and stopped when it got to the end, allowing the judges to get a close look at its apparel.

"Cute, but not to the point the cuteness is sickening, and it really fits the Maggot motif," Chris noted before holding up his scorecard. "Nine points!"

The Maggots cheered at Chris' high score, and cheered even further as Chef gave them an 8.5, and Lindsay gave them a 0.9. The team quickly started to protest Lindsay's choice until she realized her mistake, and flipped the card around so it was 9.0.

"Oops," Lindsay apologized sheepishly.

"Okay, show me what you've got, Rats!" Chris called backstage, only for no one to come forward. "Rats?"

Shawn ran out from behind the curtain with a frightened scream. He was quickly followed by Dave, Sky, and then Beardo. "The Rats present a style from decades ago!"

"Come on, get out there!" Sugar insisted behind the curtain. She soon emerged… on Sasquatchinakwa's shoulders, trying to steer him out onto the stage.

Sasquatchinakwa wore a tie-dye shirt, bell bottom pants that the legs had no extra flowing room.

"Originating from the 70's, the shirt is an explosion of color, and the pants-" Shawn tried to explain.

"Wah!" Sugar yelped as the yeti threw her off, and then started swatting at the rest of the team.

"The pants had enough leg room to perfectly fit his thick legs!" Shawn finished with a scream, diving off the stage before Sasquatchinakwa could swat at him.

Lindsay gasped, "That thing is huge!"

Pausing mid-rampage, the yeti grunted in confusion, staring at the former contestant.

"True, and honestly, the whole 70's thing does not work for him," Chris added.

When the viewpoint showed Sasquatchinakwa again, men with cameras were lined up on either side of him, rapidly taking pictures and setting off camera flashes.

"What the-? What are the paparazzi doing here?!" Chris gawked.

Hearing the question, Topher's eyes went to his pocket, and he hastily placed his hand on the pocket containing the phone.

As the paparazzi continued to take photos, the yeti became more enraged with every camera flash blinding him. Eventually, he let out a growl as he ripped off the clothes.

"Chris is right," Lindsay started to tell Chef, "but I would totally wear those pants to a theme ni-aaah!" Sasquatchinakwa had grabbed her by the head, and pulled her away from the table.

Somehow, the sasquatch had managed to grab Chris' jetpack, and flew up with Lindsay in his possession. The campers raced over as he took off, shocked by the turn of events.

"Hey, he took my jetpack!" Chris exclaimed in outrage.

Lindsay let out a cry of terror as Sasquatchinakwa flew her over to Boney Island.

Beginning to fan himself more rapidly, Chris lifted up his sunglasses as he stared directly into the camera. "Will Lindsay survive? Am I legally liable if she doesn't? Find out after the break!" That being the cue, the show faded to black.

* * *

When the show faded back in, Chris was on the Dock of Shame, still fanning himself as he talked into a cellphone different to the one Topher had picked up.

"What do you mean I'm liable if the yeti eats Lindsay?" Chris questioned whoever was on the other end of the call. "It's not my fault she's delicious!"

The camera zoomed out to show that the two teams were watching him, all of them confused and at a loss of what they were supposed to do.

"Gotta go," Chris hurriedly said, and ended the call, tucking the phone away. He then addressed the campers, "Hey, for our next challenge, the two teams will… compete to rescue Lindsay! Yep, that's it! Everyone grab a canoe, and head to Boney Island!" The teams did as instructed, and went to go get their canoes. Chris chuckled after they left, "It's all good."

* * *

After being away from the island for so long, there weren't many canoes left around, thus both teams had to fit all their members in one respective canoe. The Maggots sat in a red one, Jasmine in the front, followed by Sammy, Scarlett, Topher, and Rodney at the back. The Rats paddled in a green one with Shawn in front, Sky behind him, Dave behind Sky, Sugar behind Dave, and Beardo at the back.

"Well, so much for winning that challenge," Dave spoke up while he paddled.

Sugar huffed. "I guess since it was Shawn's plan, we were bound to lose, huh?"

Sky groaned, rolling her eyes skyward. "When are you going to let that go? The team wasn't supposed to hear that!"

Dave frowned, and began to say, "Um, Sky, I have a question."

"What is it, Dave?" The gymnast sighed, wanting to have no attention to herself at the moment.

"Yesterday when you were unconscious, you said someone's name, and I have to ask. Who is Keith?"

Immediately, Sky forgot all about the team drama, and found herself stuttering, "Oh! He's, um, he's my b- hey, look! Fog!"

As the team paddled closer to Boney Island, they began to enter a thicket of fog.

The teams approached the island, and Boney Island could be seen by the skull-shaped formation that earned the island its name.

* * *

"Lindsay!" Sammy hollered as she and her teammates ran through Boney Island's woods. "Lindsay, where are you?"

As Rodney and Topher passed through the area, the focus zoomed in on them.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"So, Rodney's been needing my help with breaking up with a girl," the junior Chris recapped, "so yesterday, I tried to help him break up with Jasmine so he could date Scarlett, but when the challenge ended yesterday, it sounded like he was into Jasmine again." His brow furrowed as he tried to figure out the sense behind his words. "I don't know what's going through his head, but now would be a good time to find that out."

* * *

"Rodney, slow down for a second?" Topher requested, jogging up beside the farm boy.

Rodney blinked at the request. "Oh, sure." He slowed to a walk, and Topher followed suit so they were walking side-by-side. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I want to talk about you," Topher answered. "Dude, what was that yesterday? You told me you want to break up with her, and then you started hitting on her again at the end of the day? I thought you were into Scarlett."

"I was!" Rodney replied before correcting himself, "I mean, I am!"

Topher frowned in confusion. "Either you are into her, or you're not anymore. Which is it?"

Rodney halted to a stop, exclaiming, "I don't know!"

"Huh?!" Topher stopped as well.

"I'm sorry! The whole time we've been here- it's been Amy, Jasmine, Scarlett, Jasmine, Scarlett, and Jasmine again! I love them all, but at the same time, I don't anymore! I'm so confused!"

"What's there to be confused about? Just pick one!"

"I can't!" Rodney began to cry, and pulled Topher in for a desperate hug.

"Hey, dude, let me go! Augh, watch the hair!"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Still don't know what's going through his head," Topher quipped in a rather short confessional.

* * *

Jasmine skidded to a stop, lifting up her arms in front of everyone else. "Everybody, look! The yeti's right up there." She pointed, and the camera followed up some scaffolding to where Sasquatchinakwa was sitting on a ledge with Lindsay sitting next to him, unharmed.

"Aw, it's okay, yeti." Lindsay cooed, patting the purple sasquatch on the arm. "The world just isn't ready for beauty like yours." The sasquatch wiped a tear away from his eye. "You're like a snowflake, but like a lot bigger. Like, I mean, a lot."

Scarlett raised an eyebrow, inquiring, "What is with the scaffolding? From my knowledge, Boney Island is too dangerous for habitation by anything other than the creatures that naturally live here."

"I'm turning Boney Island into my personal resort," Chris explained, arriving with Chef. "The health department said it was unfit for human life, but I sent in workers anyway." A strange smile appeared on his face while the campers appeared disturbed by the claim. "I wonder where they went."

* * *

Horrifying background music played as somewhere else on the island, bones were scattered around and wooly beavers were gnawing on some of them. All of the beavers in the area appeared to be wearing hard hats, and one of the beavers was even pouring a cup of coffee from a thermos.

* * *

When the scene returned to the contestants, Lindsay yelled from her position in the yeti's arms, "Don't hurt him! He just has big, hairy body issues!"

"I know a thing or two about hairy…" Beardo murmured quietly, stroking his beard. He noticed his teammates giving him odd looks. "Let me see if I can talk to the guy." He stepped forward, cleared his throat, and made a string of sasquatch noises like he had done earlier but in a different sequence.

Sasquatchinakwa growled, and began to stomp around, to the horror of Beardo.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Seriously," he pleaded to the audience watching his confessional, "what did I say?"

* * *

As the yeti stomped around, the scaffolding below him started collapsing. Fortunately for the campers, they formed a platform that they could use as a ramp to run up and retrieve Lindsay.

"Hey, the yeti might've just given us a way to reach him!" Sammy exclaimed happily.

"That makes coming up with a plan easier than previously," Scarlett remarked, smiling as her team turned in her direction. "It's simple, really- there are four poles holding up the scaffolding and five of us. Jasmine, Samey, Topher, and I will climb the poles to draw the yeti's attention. As the strongest and the most comparable to the yeti in size, Rodney can run up the platforms and confront it directly."

Jasmine nodded in Scarlett's direction. "Brilliant idea!"

Sheepishly, Rodney raised his hand. "Hey, before we do that, could we… um… maybe-?"

"Let's move!" The Outback explorer commanded, and the team went into action, Rodney rather hesitant to do so.

The Rats watched their rivals run by them, and faced each other.

"How are we supposed to get to Lindsay before they do?" Dave asked.

Sugar dismissively waved her hand. "That's easy. We follow them, of course."

"What?" Shawn, Sky, and Beardo chorused.

"Yeah, we let them do all the hard work for us by clearing the path, and when they're distracted by the big furball, we sneak in and save Lindsay ourselves."

"…That's actually a really good plan, Sugar," Sky admitted, rather surprised by her teammate's idea.

"See, you're not the only one who can come up with good plans to help the team," Sugar retorted haughtily, causing Sky to scowl in annoyance.

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

"It's like every time Sugar opens her mouth, it's to take a shot at me," Sky vented, sitting with her arms crossed. "If I didn't want to win the money so badly, I'd just up and leave because being heckled like this is not worth a whole lot."

* * *

"Sammy, you take the first one. I'll take the second one, Scarlett will take the third one, and Topher takes the fourth one," Jasmine ordered as the Maggots went to their respective positions and began their climb on the scaffolding. Rodney's boots clunked a bit loudly as his heavy footsteps bounded up the ramps.

Sasquatchinakwa saw the team climbing up the poles, and did not like it in the least. He grabbed a barrel from a stack near him, and threw it down at one of the pole climbers.

Sammy let out a scream as the barrel hit her, and sent her down to the ground. Jasmine, Scarlett, and Topher screamed when they were hit with barrels as well.

Sky cringed, wincing at every one of the Maggots' falls. "That looked like it really hurt…" Laughter reached her ears, and she frowned, twisting her head away from the challenge to look at Sugar. "Sugar, would you stop laughing at the pain of others?"

The viewpoint shifted over to Sugar, who had a puzzled expression on her face. "Uh, that wasn't me."

The laughter continued, almost sounding familiar, as the scene zoomed out to show the whole team.

"So, if it's not one of us, then who is it?" Beardo questioned, voicing the concern they all had.

"Never mind that, we've got to move," Sugar declared, becoming serious as she pointed to the scaffolding. Rodney was shown getting halfway up, and now Sasquatchinakwa was throwing barrels down the ramps, which Rodney jumped over. "That big guy is nearly to the top."

Topher moaned as he and his female teammates got up from the ground. "There goes my back…"

"Now what do we do?" Sammy inquired, brushing dirt off her skirt.

"I say we go again," Jasmine suggested, "Rodney may still need our help."

Scarlett adjusted her glasses on her face. "I personally disagree with that plan of action. Now that I know what it's like being hit by a barrel, I am not looking forward to reliving the experience so soon."

"I think we're a bit late to do that, anyway. Look," Sammy pointed at the Rats, who were going towards the scaffolding, and enacting the same plan they had performed. Sugar ran up the platforms while Shawn, Sky, Dave, and Beardo climbed the poles.

"They're copying our plan? Talk about uncreative," Topher quipped, giving the Rats a flat look.

Sammy's face morphed into an expression of concern. "Now what?"

A scream rang out, sounding as familiar as the earlier laugh. Without warning, a blond-haired blur in red and white tackled Sammy to the ground.

The eyes of the three uninvolved Maggots went as wide as saucers.

"What the-?" Jasmine gasped.

"Huh?!" Topher cried out.

From what it looked like, two Sammys were wrestling on the ground. They grabbed at each other's wrists, pulled at each other's hair, and shoved their hands in each other's faces.

"What're you doing here?" One Sammy asked between grunts of effort.

"I should be asking the same about you!" The other Sammy retorted.

* * *

Beardo fell from his pole after being smacked by a barrel. Shawn followed soon after, and then Dave fell, and eventually Sky fell on top of Dave. Dave let out an extra shriek of pain after Sky fell onto him.

"I'm starting to think that Sugar's plan was a bad one," Dave squeaked out.

"It sounded easier said than done," Shawn agreed, getting on his hands and knees. Looking up, he tilted his head in confusion. "Hey, what's going on over there?"

"Go home!" One of the girls shouted at the other. The girls were now in a different position, with one of them having the other in a headlock while the other had their arms looped around the first one's waist. Topher, Jasmine, and Scarlett stood aside, none of them sure if they should get involved.

"No, you go home!" The other snapped back.

"I deserve a chance in this game!"

"I deserve it more than you!"

Both of them shouted at the same time, "You're the worst sister ever!"

"That's enough!" Chef hollered, stomping over without Chris by his side. He grabbed both of the girls, and pulled them apart, holding them each up by one arm. "Now, one of you is supposed to be eliminated. Which one is it?"

"She is!" Both girls pointed at each other with their free one. "No, you're Amy! Stop that!"

"How do we know who the real one is?" Topher asked in an aside to Scarlett and Jasmine, the trio being joined by the Rats sans Sugar.

"I think I've got a way," Jasmine spoke up, and walked over to Chef. "Whichever one of you gets the answer to a question I ask you wrong, you must be Amy. I'll start with an easy one- which team member began the relay race in episode two?"

"Topher!" Both answered immediately.

Jasmine tapped her finger on her lips in thought before asking, "Which team lost the challenge in episode three?"

"The Rats!"

Frowning, Jasmine thought for a moment before her face lit up with an idea in mind. "What am I afraid of?"

"I know that one!" One of them smiled widely, and folded her arms confidently.

The other one gawked for a moment before copying the first one's posture. "Uh, yeah, I totally know that one too."

Smirking, Jasmine pressed, "So what is it?"

"Tight spaces!" "Heights!"

"The answer you're looking for is… tight spaces!" Jasmine said. "Which means, you're not Sammy!" She pointed to the girl in Chef's right hand grip. The camera zoomed in on the girl's right cheek, where there was a small circle of skin tone that was darker than the rest. Jasmine stepped closer to the girl, and used her thumb to wipe away the circle, revealing a black dot. "I knew it!"

"Ugh! Samey, you ruin everything!" The newly-revealed Amy huffed indignantly as Chef let Sammy go, and the nice twin hugged Jasmine. "You too, you freak giant!"

"Of course," Scarlett remarked as she walked over with Topher, who was smiling. "Amy must have been the culprit of Samey's things going missing. She first took Samey's make-up bag to conceal her mole-"

"Beauty mark!" Amy interrupted with a scowl.

"And then, she took Samey's clothes since in order to sneak back onto the island, she couldn't bring any extra luggage so she had to steal Samey's for spare sets of clothes and to identify herself as Samey."

"That night I thought I saw something in the woods that somehow covered its tracks; that must've been her!" Shawn joined in.

"Not to mention, she must've been the one to raid my fridge," Chef added with a snarl in Amy's direction, "isn't that right?"

"Well, duh!" Amy snapped. "How else was I supposed to eat? Look for food in the woods like some kind of animal?"

Chef opened his mouth to respond, but a rough cry, followed by a heavy thud, cut the discussion short. Everyone looked away from Amy, and saw Rodney on the ground near the scaffolding, heels over his head. He moaned in pain, and then Sasquatchinakwa soon fell on top of him, prompting him to moan more.

Up on the ledge where Lindsay was, Sugar pumped her fist as Lindsay watched on in concern for her new yeti friend. "Boom! That's how Sugar does!"

Chris, having went off to find his jetpack that the yeti had stolen, flew up to the ledge to announce, "Team Rat, you've got immunity!"

Shawn, Sky, Dave, and Beardo cheered while the Maggots groaned at their loss.

"Great..." Topher sighed, looking down.

Meanwhile, Chef looked down at Amy. "You're in lots of trouble," he grumbled to her.

She huffed, crossing her arms. "Tell me something I don't already know."

"Well, Lindsay's rescued," Chris decided, "so it's time to head back to camp. Maggots, you've got some voting to do."

At that, the Maggots glanced at each other in uncertainty about their upcoming ceremony.

* * *

Night once more fell over the island, and the bonfire was once again lit. For some reason, the Toxic Rats were present at the bonfire along with the Mutant Maggots, the team that was actually voting someone off. Topher and Rodney sat in the upper right corner of the stump seats with Jasmine and Sammy sitting in front of them, and Scarlett sitting in the back next to Topher. Beardo sat on the bottom left stump, and Shawn then Sugar were seated next to him while Dave and Sky sat in the back row behind them.

"That was a complete fiasco," Chris remarked as he and Chef, dressed in his hazmat suit and holding the box containing the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom, stood before the two teams.

Sammy raised her hand. "Hey, Chris? What happened to Amy?"

Chris grinned, "Oh, she's paying her dues." He pointed at Chef with his thumb. "Chef has some beef with her, and since I don't intend on letting her back in the game, I thought it'd be good enough reason to make her a temporary intern."

Topher broke into a fit of laughter. "An intern? Being an intern on this show is the worst thing you could possibly be!"

* * *

A flash cut to the communal washrooms, where Amy was mopping the floor, dressed in the intern outfit of a red shirt, khakis, and gray shoes.

"Stupid cook…" The twin-turned-intern grumbled bitterly.

* * *

Back at the bonfire, Chris picked up three marshmallows from his plate. "The votes are in, and the following players are safe… Jasmine!"

Jasmine happily caught her marshmallow.

"Scarlett!" Scarlett smirked as she snatched her marshmallow out of the air with one hand.

"Samey!" Sammy shared a smile with Jasmine as she received her treat.

Rodney and Topher visibly tensed upon discovering they were the last two without a marshmallow.

"The Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom goes to…" Chris drawled out. Beads of sweat formed on Rodney's forehead while Topher clenched his hands into fists. "Rodney!"

The country boy sighed as he slumped over, "Aw…" Looking up, he noticed the glowing marshmallow flying over to him. "Gah!" Smacking it away with the back of his hand, he sent it soaring towards the lake.

On the lake, an antlered loon sat on the surface in slumber, it awoke at the sound of a nearby 'plop', and watched as the glowing marshmallow sunk into the water, leaving bubbles where it had sunk.

Rodney stood, staring at his teammates. "I'm sorry, you guys. I couldn't save Lindsay, and I couldn't decide matters of my fickle heart," he apologized, placing a hand over where his heart was in his chest.

"Move it, big boy," Chef appeared behind Rodney, and shoved him along.

"I'm going, I'm going…"

"Thank you, Chef," Chris nodded to his trusted friend as he guided Rodney down to the dock. "Now for something special- Toxic Rats, you're probably wondering why I asked you to sit in on this elimination ceremony. I'll need a strong volunteer from each team."

Sky momentarily glanced at her teammates before standing. "I'll do it!"

"As will I," Jasmine also stood.

"Pack your bags!" Chris declared.

"You're making 'em leave too?!" Sugar exclaimed in confusion.

Chris shook his head. "Nah, I don't give people time to pack before they get hurled. These two are switching teams!"

Both teams gasped, including the swapees, and the girls nodded to each other before walking over to their new teams.

"Hey," Jasmine greeted the Toxic Rats as she sat down where Sky had sat previously. Dave was noticeably upset that Sky was no longer sitting next to him.

Shawn grinned as he greeted his new teammate, "Hey."

"Hi," Sammy waved her hand as Sky sat down in Jasmine's previous seat. "Welcome to the team."

"Yes," Scarlett agreed, adjusting her glasses as she glanced at the new teammate, "welcome."

* * *

Down at the Dock of Shame, Rodney sat in the bucket of the catapult. Chris stood at the catapult's side, smiling.

"Any last words before your ride to Loserdom?" The host asked cheekily.

Rodney sighed, "I can't say I'm surprised to be going home. I played with a lot of hearts, and not even Topher could help me…"

A laugh escaped Chris. "Yeah, I'd say you're beyond help. Buh-bye!" He grasped the catapult's lever, and tugged it downward.

Rodney yelled as he was flung into the air, quickly fading from view.

Turning away from the catapult, Chris addressed the camera, "Who will be the next loser hurled? How much can we humiliate them first? Will Amy finish cleaning the washrooms before then?"

"Augh! I hate cleaning!" Amy screeched in the distance, causing Chris to smirk off to the side.

"Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" He finished his outro with a shot of the island at night.

* * *

A flash cut returned to the island, where Lindsay was wandering through the campgrounds and looking every which way.

"Hey, does anyone know where the boat is?" she asked, walking out of the camera's sight.

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **I tried to juggle several things this episode- Amy's return, Topher's theft, and Rodney's downfall. Topher's thing was easy enough to slip in, but Amy and Rodney's things were harder. It was the third act, the part with Boney Island that gave me trouble when you last heard from me. I wanted to give attention to Amy's return, but also show Rodney losing and thus justifying his elimination. In the end, I couldn't focus on both things, and had to focus on one thing or the other at the climax. In the end, I decided that since Amy is a bit more important to the story than Rodney going forward, I would focus on her return and just put Rodney's loss of screen and say he lost to Sugar in saving Lindsay from Sasquatchinakwa. I don't know if it was a good move, or not so tell me what you think.**

 **My goal with Rodney was to make him more relevant to his cast. He was canonically ignored and dismissed, and generally a mess. He's still a bit of a mess, but less so since Topher tried to point him in a direction, and he now acknowledges that he has a problem, so that's a little development at least.**

 **Yes, Amy is back, but not as a competitor. I knew I wanted to bring her back to fight with Sammy some more, but I knew she couldn't come back into the picture immediately. The fourth challenge was a night one, and she just returned that same night. The fifth challenge took place out on the water, and on fast boats that Amy would no way be able to keep up with. With the sixth challenge, they were on land and thus it was easy for her to get to Sammy when the time was right. In the meantime leading up to her reveal, I had her do a few things to keep up the suspense, such as Sammy's stuff going 'missing' and Chef's kitchen being raided. Beyond what I have planned for her in the future, I didn't really know what to do with her until Fangren brought up Chef getting revenge for his kitchen, which led to Amy in the washrooms. So thanks for inspiring that last bit, Fangren!**

 **Oh, and I put Lindsay's last scene back on Wawanakwa instead of Boney Island because the original version is just too dark and cruel for someone like Lindsay. If it were Izzy, maybe it'd be okay, but not Lindsay.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	7. TDRI Episode 7

**StarHeart Specials:** Thanks! We'll have to wait and see what happens with Amy.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **SideshowJazz1:** It's okay, I hate Amy too. Yeah, she's going to hate interning, and actually she already does. Like I told StarHeart, we'll have to wait and see if Amy gets mutated. Yeah, it would've been really cruel to leave Lindsay on Boney Island at the end of the episode. It's a miracle that she survived in canon. Yeah, I wanted to give Rodney at least a little character development in the six episodes he was competing. I think he sort of realized he had a problem in canon, but the way it was written was terrible so I definitely think I improved that bit. Interesting predictions... keep those in mind as we move forward.

 **That British Guy:** I agree with you there.

 **OmniPlanckInstant:** You're welcome. My main goal with Rodney in this season was to address what canon didn't, and I think it worked out well. Yeah, Sky's having a rough time between Sugar heckling her and trying to muster up the courage to tell Dave about Keith. Her rough time is the main reason she volunteered for the swap. Granted, she didn't know that's what Chris was planning, but it worked out for her. For Dave, not so much. I'm glad you enjoyed Topher's scene with Chris. They haven't had many opportunities to interact like Topher pointed out last episode, and it was fun to write.

 **Madness is a State of Mind:** You're welcome. Lindsay was lucky to get out of there in one piece. And yeah, Jasmine's not going to have a fun time this episode, nope.

 **TheOneAndOnlyNumber1:** Crisis averted! Blast from the Past wouldn't work here since Sammy didn't take Amy's place in the competition. I haven't read Total Drama High Seas, but I'm happy to remind you of that if that's what happened in it.

 **SilentSinger948:** I'm sorry that you're upset about Amy's return. Not to worry, though. She's not having a fun time as an intern, so that ought to make you happy again. Yeah, Jasmine and Shawn's relationship will progress now that they're on the same team. That was my main reason for swapping Jasmine onto Shawn's team.

 **sdgeek:** Thanks! I'm glad to have made you laugh.

Reviews have been answered! Let's get mining!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 7- A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated over footage of the Rats being chased onto the runway. "We saw how clueless our players are when it comes to fashion, and how useless they are when it comes to rescues." A clip then played of the campers getting hit with barrels, followed by a clip of Rodney getting pushed along by Chef. "In the end, Rodney got tossed, and Jasmine and Sky swapped teams." Jasmine and Sky were seen passing each other on their way to sit with their new teams.

The footage flashed to Chris sitting in a deck chair on the Dock of Shame with one of his feet out of their shoe. "You call that buffing?" asked Chris, who was frowning at Amy filing his toenails. The mean twin scowled as she kept filing. "I want to see my ruggedly handsome face in every toenail." If it was possible, Amy scowled even further, and filed faster and harder. "Ow! You little-!" Before Chris could reprimand her any further, the hair on both their heads start to flutter in the wind as the breeze picked up.

A helicopter, bearing the symbol of the environmental protection agency, hovered down near the dock. "This is the Department of Environmental Protection! You're busted, McLean!" boomed a voice through a loudspeaker.

Chris glared at the helicopter. "Aw man, meddling tree huggers…" He reached into his pocket, and retrieved a walkie-talkie. "Launch Operation Doomsday, repeat, Operation Doomsday! Over!" He then addressed the camera filming him. "What is Operation Doomsday, you ask? Find out right here, right now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" As he finished his intro, two more helicopters joined the first one.

(cue intro)

* * *

Sugar sat on the Rats' cabin porch, a compact mirror in one hand and a make-up brush in the other. Carefully, she brushed her eyelashes with the brush as she observed in the mirror. A cabin door opened and shut behind her, and soon Beardo walked up to her.

"What're you doing?" The hairy teen asked.

"Trying out mah new make-up," Sugar answered with a smile. "I kept the make-up we got from the challenge the other day, and I say, I'm looking pretty dang good in this stuff."

Beardo raised an eyebrow as one of the cabin doors opened and shut again. "I'm not seeing much of a difference."

Sugar scoffed, putting down the brush and picking up a tube of lipstick. "You're a guy, of course you wouldn't." She popped the cap off the lipstick, and began to apply it to her lips.

"Don't even bother putting that stuff on," Dave remarked as he joined the two on the porch, "even with that stuff, you're still nowhere near as pretty as… Sky." He whimpered, and a few tears gathered in his eyes.

Unnoticed by Dave, Sugar rolled her eyes.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

She sat in the outhouse with her arms crossed. "That Dave fellow's been a blubbering mess since Sky went onto the other team. I don't really get what he sees in her. I mean, 'not as pretty as Sky'? Please, I'm probably the most beautiful girl in camp!" She struck a pose at the end of her confession to make a point, not noticing how ridiculous she looked.

* * *

Helicopters flew over camp, and interns struggled to carry bags as they walked through camp. Shawn and Jasmine were going the other way.

"Morning," Jasmine greeted as she stepped into pace with Shawn and noticed the frown on his face. "Hey, are you okay?"

Shawn glanced at her before focusing on the walk ahead. "Not really. The helicopters flying around, the interns hauling butt outta here… I can't help but feel like the zombie apocalypse will be on us any moment."

Jasmine chuckled lightly. "Zombies… I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe it's just an intern holiday, and everyone's itching to get out of here as soon as possible? If I had to work for Chris, I think I'd do the same."

"I doubt it," rebutted Shawn, and then he sighed, turning to her. "Look, I'm happy that we're on the same team now, since we haven't been able to talk all that much before, but right now I'm a bit on edge so I apologize if I don't seem interested in some light conversation."

"I suppose that's fair," agreed Jasmine with a nod of her head. "We've all got our worries and such."

"Exactly, and since everything feels off this morning, just keep your guard up."

Shawn and Jasmine entered the mess hall, where Sugar sat impatiently at the Rats' table. Beardo, Dave, and most of the Maggots were standing around between the two tables, and Topher was sitting on top of the Maggots' table, typing away on Chris' phone.

"What's everybody standing around for?" Jasmine inquired, looking at everyone. "Where's the food?"

"There isn't any," Sky answered, "Chef's not here, and nothing seems to be prepared for us."

Sugar walked over, frowning. "Well, that's just great. What do we do now? I'm hungry."

"I suppose we'll just have to make our own breakfast," Scarlett spoke up, "follow me." She turned, and entered the kitchen.

* * *

From inside the fridge, Jasmine was shown opening it. "There's no food in the fridge," she reported after a quick glance.

Sammy opened a cupboard, seeing it empty. "There's nothing in here, either," said the nice twin as she looked over her shoulder.

At the kitchen window by the sink, Chef could be seen standing outside. "We should check the walk-in freezer," he suggested before ducking away from it.

Looking up from Chris' phone, Topher shut it with a 'click'. "That's a great idea!" He jogged over to the freezer, and pulled it open. "Score! Food!" The junior Chris ran inside, and everyone else followed.

Once everyone was inside, a pull-down door slid down and they all gasped as they were trapped inside. Outside of the mess hall, Chef was shown starting up a delivery truck and driving it away from the camp.

Inside the truck, a slit opened in the wall, and Chef peeked inside, chuckling, "Challenge time, suckers!"

The camera pulled back to show the campers trying to stay standing as the truck continuously rocked back and forth. Jasmine had her arms wrapped around her midsection, her eyes like that of a deer caught in headlights. Sammy held onto her, and Sugar attempted to eat the cold meat off a set of ribs.

"Space… so small… so dark…" Jasmine mumbled in a whimper.

"What're you going to do with us?!" demanded Shawn.

"You'll see," laughed Chef as he began to close the opening, but yelped as his thumb got caught.

* * *

At what looked like the opening of a mine shaft, Chef backed the truck up to it, and tipped the back. The campers fell out into a heap, all producing a scream or cry in the process.

"Good, you're here! Finally," Chris said on a TV monitor, showing him inside of an office of sorts. He then smiled, beginning to explain, "Today's challenge is to find a golden Chris statue in your team color hidden somewhere in this old, abandoned mine. First team back wins!"

"Hah, that'll be us!" Sugar boasted, drawing everyone's attention. "With Sky on the other team now, we're sure to- augh!" She fell over as what looked like an orange backpack collided with her back. The other campers looked to see where the backpack came from, and found Chef, dressed in his hazmat suit, tossing backpacks out of the back of the truck.

"Don't worry, there are enough packs for everyone," Chris teased as he watched several campers, namely Dave, Scarlett, and Sammy, struggle to hold up their packs.

"Man, what are in these? Bricks?" questioned Beardo as he reached for the flap of the pack.

Chris held up a hand on the monitor's screen. "Bup, bup, bup! No peeking! Those fifty pound packs are purely for your torment and my amusement. Enjoy!"

Reaching into a side pocket of the backpack, Scarlett pulled out what looked like a metal armband with a green upside-down triangle on it. "Chemical badges? Why would we need to measure our exposure to toxic waste, exactly?"

"No reason," Chris shrugged, "except I rented out the mine to store hazardous material." This statement earned gasps all around from the campers.

"Are you crazy?!" Sky exclaimed with wide eyes.

Chris shook his head. "No, which is why I'm in a studio right now." The campers gasped again. "Relax, it's perfectly safe- for thirty minutes." A green chemical badge appeared on the screen beside him, and he pointed to it as it turned orange. "Orange means you have fifteen minutes left," the badge turned red, "red is your five minute warning," the badge went black and showed a white skull and crossbones, "and if you see a skull and crossbones, we'll dedicate this episode to you. But no way is it going to come to that.

"I sent Amy down there for forty minutes," Chris explained as he pointed to his watch, and a picture of Amy showed up on the screen. "She's going to be fine-ish," he looked off to the side as he mentioned that.

* * *

Elsewhere at a medical tent, Amy let out a loud scream of horror. Inside the tent, she was shown seeing her head in a hand mirror. The reason for her distress was the fact that she was completely bald. "My hair! Chris is dead! Chris is so _bleeping_ dead!" Amy swore, her curse being bleeped out. The intern tending to her stepped away from her, holding the mirror close.

* * *

Back at the mine, Chris continued, "Now move it, peeps!"

"Are you at least going to give us a clue where to find the statues?" Topher asked.

"Funny story- the statues have gone missing. Someone, or something, must've taken them."

The camera zoomed in on Jasmine, gulping in nervousness. "It's nice and open down there, right?"

"Girl, it's a mine," replied Chris as if it were obvious, "so no. There are flashlights and a jar of fireflies inside. First come, first serve. Anywho, time's a-wasting, and so are your healthy blood cells. So go!"

* * *

Wearing their packs, the Rats were the first to enter the mine, and Shawn was apparently tugging Jasmine along by her hand. Inside, they quickly came to a stop in front of a mining elevator.

"Alright! We got in here first!" Sugar cheered. "Sugar holla!"

Her cheer was so loud that the shaft shook, and a bunch of rocks fell on top of the Rats. They started to crawl out of the small avalanche when the Maggots ran past them.

"I'd recommend being a little more quiet in here, if I were you," Scarlett remarked with a smirk, passing them by.

Dave scowled as he glanced at Sugar. "You hear that, Sugar? Quiet." Sugar glared back at him in response.

Scarlett hopped in the elevator with the rest of her team, and took the liberty of closing the elevator's gate. In the back, Sammy bent over, and picked something up off the floor.

"Hey, we've got the flashlights!" She told her team, holding one up.

Suddenly, the elevator began to shake, and the Maggots were sent speeding down the shaft, screaming for their lives. Soon, a loud crash occurred.

Down in the shaft, it was pitch black, and everyone was moaning in pain.

"Is everyone okay?" Sky spoke up.

"Mostly! I really hope my hair is still good," Topher answered.

"Hold on, I think I have one of the flashlights," Sammy said, turning one on and allowing the team to be seen on-camera. The whole cavern could be seen now, and at the side Sammy was pointing… "Hey, there's a tunnel! Should we take it?"

The team then heard some squealing that they were sure didn't sound like regular old pigs.

Scarlett hummed quickly in thought, "It's a start as good as any. Let's take it." Getting to her feet, she ran towards the tunnel, followed by her teammates.

* * *

Up at the entrance, the Rats were now out of the rocks and standing at the edge of the shaft.

"You guys, I don't think that elevator is going to come back up any time soon," Beardo commented, staring down into the darkness.

Shawn frowned. "We'll have to shimmy down the cables."

"Shimmy?" Jasmine repeated nervously as Shawn jumped and grabbed onto one of the cables. "Like, tight and narrow shimmy?"

"Hey, don't worry nuthin'," Sugar comforted her, holding up the jar of fireflies Chris mentioned. "With these babies, we can make the whole place look nice and wide. Catch!" She tossed the jar towards Shawn.

"What?" Shawn yelped, fumbling to catch the jar. Unwittingly, he lost his grip and he began to fall down the shaft. He began to scream.

Jasmine gasped, "Shawn!" She jumped onto the cord he had used, and quickly started climbing down into the shaft, not realizing what she was doing.

Halfway down the shaft, Shawn managed to get a grip on both the cable and the firefly jar. Unfortunately for him, getting a grip on both meant an uncomfortable slide down the shaft with his crotch. "Ah, that burns!" cried Shawn.

Just in time, he slowed enough so that he came to a stop right above the destroyed elevator.

"Huh, I'm down," he remarked with a blink of his eyes for good measure.

"Shawn!" Jasmine's voice called above him. Shawn looked up, and pried himself away from the cable, watching as Jasmine expertly slid down to him. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, but what about you?" Shawn pointed out. "You just slid down a mine shaft like it was nothing!"

Jasmine blinked in confusion. "I did? I slid down… oh no…" Her actions began to register with her, and she started to panic. "It's dark… feeling tight… not enough room… want out…"

Shawn put his free hand on her shoulder. "Jasmine, focus! You're okay, and you're in a wide, open space."

"Wide… open…" Jasmine mumbled to herself, trying to pull herself together.

"Look out below!" Sugar hollered, and before the two teammates had a chance to react, she slammed down on top of them, making them grunt from the impact.

The firefly jar slid from Shawn's hands, and bounced on the floor, opening up and letting out the fireflies. The luminescent bugs began to fly off into the tunnel that the Maggots had taken earlier.

Beardo and Dave soon joined their teammates, and Dave scowled. "Oh, great job, Sugar! The fireflies are getting away."

"Hey, it ain't mah fault that he has butterfingers!" defended Sugar, blaming Shawn.

Beardo jumped down from the elevator. "Quick, before they get away!" Dave and Sugar were quick to follow, Dave grabbing the jar as he went.

"You guys! Jasmine's freaking out!" Shawn protested, still on the elevator with her.

"So? You help that Not-Sky! We'll go get the fireflies," argued Dave, and the trio went off into the tunnel.

"Guys, the light!"

As the cavern grew dimmer and dimmer, Jasmine's breathing got heavier. "Tight… narrow… dark… Shawn, can I hold your hand?"

"Sure, just don't let go." Shawn offered her his hand before the light completely went out. Once it was pitch black, Shawn let out a shrill scream. "Man, you have strong hands!"

* * *

The Mutant Maggots panted as they walked through the mine. The packs really loaded them down, making them tire out quicker than they normally would.

"You think we're far away enough from whatever that noise was?" asked Sammy, who was still holding her flashlight.

"Hard to say," Scarlett answered while pushing her glasses back into place, "we'll just have to hope for the best."

Sky then pointed ahead. "Look! Two tunnels!"

Indeed, two tunnels were a few feet away. One of them looked like a built mining tunnel, complete with railroad tracks. The other tunnel looked carved out by something non-human.

"Whoa, look at the tunnel on the right," Topher remarked. He fished Chris' phone out of his pocket, and snapped a picture of the inhuman tunnel. "What do you think made it?"

Scarlett stepped closer to it, and analyzed it while Sammy shined her flashlight on it. "From what I studied of animals before coming onto the show, my best guess is some kind of giant rodent."

"Giant rodent? Ew!" Sammy cringed in response.

"So… left tunnel?" Sky guessed.

* * *

"These fireflies better not bite!"

"They look normal to me."

"That's what they want us to think before they reveal some freakish mutation like all the others."

"Just guide them over here."

Beardo held the jar open as Dave rallied the fireflies towards him. Once the glowing bugs were close enough, Beardo scooped them out of the air with the jar, and screwed the lid on.

"Got 'em!" Beardo declared, smiling in victory.

"Finally," Dave complained while walking over to Beardo, "thanks to that, we have no idea if we're even going the right way to the statues. I hope you've learned your lesson about being reckless, Sugar." Nobody responded to him. "Sugar?"

Both boys looked around, and saw that their pageant queen of a teammate was nowhere to be found.

"Um, where'd she go?" Beardo questioned.

Dave stomped his foot angrily, "Dang it! This is just like what happened during the night challenge!"

* * *

Elsewhere, the Maggots followed the tracks through the tunnel until they found a pair of mining carts.

"Mining carts? Sweet, a ride!" Topher cheered.

"What?" Sammy gawked at him.

Scarlett smiled, "I'm in agreement with Topher. By taking the carts, we can make a lot of progress through the mine."

"We are on a deadline," Sky agreed, "every second counts." The moment she said that, the green triangle on her badge turned orange. She let out a gasp of shock.

"Sky's got fifteen minutes!" Sammy cried out, only to shriek briefly when hers changed a moment later.

Scarlett turned serious. "Alright, everyone, into the carts." She then got into the front one of the two.

"Right!" Sky jumped in with her.

"I guess Samey and I will take the back," Topher shrugged.

"It's Sam- oh never mind we don't have time for that." Sammy reluctantly got in the back cart with Topher.

Sky glanced at Scarlett questionably. "Are you sure you can steer this?"

Scarlett hummed casually in response as she removed a rock from being wedged under one of the front wheels. "Should be easy to control." As she thrust a lever on the side forward, the team began to roll along the rails.

"Here we go!" Topher grinned as they began to pick up speed.

* * *

"This isn't good! This isn't good!" Jasmine repeated in the dark, only her eyes being visible. "I want out! I want out!" She blinked, and her eyes started looking every which way. "Shawn, you're still holding my hand right?"

Shawn's eyes came into from slightly below. "Yeah, I'm here. I've got you. I just think I saw a flashlight the Maggots might've dropped before the room went dark, and I'm trying to find it. Could do without you breathing down my neck, though."

"Am I breathing down your neck?"

"It feels like something is. Oh, hang on! I think I found it!"

Shawn flicked on the flashlight, and the cavern lit up. Shawn and Jasmine were still holding hands, but Jasmine was most certainly not breathing down Shawn's neck. The beam of the flashlight showed a giant, pink, hairless gopher with its eyes scrunched shut. Not a fan of having a light shined in its face, the gopher shrieked at them, spraying them with drool.

Shawn and Jasmine both screamed as they were splattered with the stuff.

* * *

In another tunnel, Sugar walked alone, the camera being able to see her even though she had no light source with her.

"Shoot, where'd those boys go? I thought I was right behind 'em," Sugar said to herself out loud. She snorted as she frowned, crossing her arms. "This is just like the Little Miss Honey pageant. You think you're right behind somebody, and the next thing you know, you're all on your lonesome."

As she talked to herself, a dark silhouette emerged in the background, hiding behind one of the toxic waste barrels littered around.

Sugar tapped her chin as she continued to walk. "Maybe I'll get lucky and find the statue by myself. Then they can't talk jack about- me!" She was tackled to the floor by the dark silhouette, removing them from the camera's sight. The camera didn't follow the tackle, so the audience could only see where Sugar last stood and could hear sounds of her being dragged away. "Hey! Let me go, you little mine creep!"

* * *

Meanwhile, the Maggots zipped along the mining tracks. Scarlett and Topher seemed pleased with their speed while Sky and Sammy were a bit uncertain.

"Excellent," Scarlett smiled. "At the rate we're going, we should find the statue and be out of this toxic wasteland in no time."

"Scarlett, we may have a problem," Sky commented behind her, prompting the genius to turn around.

Somehow, the two carts were separated, and riding along different tracks. Scarlett gawked at how that happened without her knowing.

"What the-? What imbecile left these carts unhitched?!" The genius growled as Topher joined Sammy in looking frightened.

On their separate paths, the two carts came out to a more open area of the mine. While Scarlett and Sky took a drastic turn downward, and crashed, Sammy and Topher continued straight onward.

Sammy gasped as she and Topher looked ahead with terrified expressions. "The tracks!" The viewpoint shifted in front of them to show what the two were worried about. The tracks seemed to be bent out of shape and broken. "I'm too young to die!"

"And I never got to host a show!" Topher added as they flew off the rails, and fell down past the cliff that Scarlett and Sky hit, both girls unconscious. Soon, there was a big splash.

On monitors in the office Chris was staying in, Beardo and Dave were shown walking through a tunnel with the jar of fireflies in Dave's hands on one monitor while Sammy and Topher's crash site was shown on another, revealing they had landed in water.

Chris smiled with Chef, who was now in the office with him and out of his hazmat suit. "Looks like our players are doomed! Will any of them survive? I have my doubts." Chris chuckled before continuing, "but find out for sure when we return on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

The show then faded to commercial.

* * *

The show faded back into Sammy and Topher's crash site, where bubbles emerged on the water's surface. Sammy was first to emerge, gasping for air.

"Topher? Topher!" Sammy called, trying to see through her wet hair.

Topher broke surface, inhaling a deep breath of air and coughing out water.

"Are you okay?" Sammy asked, looking at Topher in concern.

Looking at her under his wet bangs, Topher frowned. "I am, but the phone probably isn't." He brought out the phone, and flipped it open, it spilling drops of water as he did so. The phone crackled, and the screen went black. "Great… I guess that's useless now." Clapping it shut, he threw it off-screen.

"How'd you even have that? I thought anything close to electronic was banned from camp," Sammy noted.

Topher nodded, "They are. That wasn't mine; that was Chris' phone. He dropped it when I went to see him the other day, and I haven't had a chance to get it back to him."

Sammy blinked at him. "Oh, that makes sense." She looked around. "We should go find Scarlett and Sky."

"They're probably fine," Topher assured her. "We should go find the statue. They're probably doing that too. If we go find the statue, we'll meet up with them later."

"I don't know…" Sammy hesitated, and then the two heard the squealing of the giant gophers. "Okay, let's go!"

She and Topher started swimming towards the closest shore they could find.

* * *

Up on the cliff, Scarlett groaned as she finally awoke. "Ugh…" she put a hand to her head as she started to get up on her feet. "I hadn't accounted for possible rail destruction or sharp turns with that kind of speed." Turning towards Sky, she glanced at the unconscious girl. "Hm, I could leave her here to her demise, but that would probably reflect me badly if anyone ever found out…" Making up her mind, she kicked at Sky.

"Ow… Scarlett…" Sky mumbled, coming to. She sat up as she rubbed her head with her hand. As her mind caught up, she frowned at Scarlett. "Did you just kick me?"

"My apologies, I needed enough force to bring you out of your state of unconsciousness," Scarlett said insincerely.

Sky's frown sunk into a scowl. "Even so, you can't just kick people like that. You should only kick people like that in self-defense." Suddenly, the ground shifted, and Sky somehow got taller than Scarlett.

Perplexed, the two girls glanced down at their feet, and saw one of the giant mutant gophers. It squealed, and they both screamed as they fled in fright.

* * *

Shawn and Jasmine ran with their mutant gopher chasing them down a tunnel.

"This thing is relentless! When will it stop?" Shawn asked Jasmine as they ran.

Jasmine, having temporarily forgotten her fear of claustrophobia in exchange for a fear of mutant gophers, chanced a glance back. In that moment, she tripped on one of the planks laid out for mining cart tracks, and tumbled over Shawn, sending them both to the floor.

"Oof!" she grunted.

The gopher caught up to them, to their horror, and began sniffing at them. It recoiled, whimpering.

"Why is it doing that?" Jasmine wondered as she and Shawn stood.

Shawn looked over the whimpering gopher. "Its eyes are screwed shut, so it's probably guided by smell." He then raised an eyebrow, and lifted his armpit, sniffing it and soon grimacing. "Ooh, I think I know."

"What?"

"…I don't really shower much…" Shawn reluctantly admitted, blushing a little.

The gopher seemed to get over its whimpering, and went back to squealing at the two Rats. Jasmine took a step back in fright while Shawn didn't move.

"You don't like that?" Shawn challenged the gopher, taking a step forward. "Good, because I don't like you!" He then raised his arms, and moved towards the gopher.

Shawn's stench was too much for the gopher, and it began scurrying away.

"You may not shower much," Jasmine began to say as she stepped up beside him, "but doing that pretty much saved our lives. I have no complaints." She smiled down at him.

"Good to hear," Shawn grinned back.

* * *

Sugar's eyes fluttered open as she was revealed to be laying on the ground. She groaned, "Where am I?"

The viewpoint zoomed out to show that she was lying in a really spacious cavern populated with lots of mutant gophers. Along with the mutant gophers was the dark silhouette that had ambushed Sugar earlier, sitting on a stone throne. As gophers began to surround the pageant queen, she rose to her feet.

"Hey, back off!" she barked. "I'll roast you all up and eat you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"

The dark silhouette snapped its fingers, and the gophers backed away from her. The silhouette jumped from its throne down to where Sugar was, bringing itself into the light and revealing itself to be a green-skinned, red-eyed Ezekiel with few strands of hair draped over his face and his clothes all scratched up with holes in them.

"I'll be!" Sugar beamed. "You're that guy that always got voted out first in the other seasons! Ezekiel, right?"

Ezekiel crept close to her, and sniffed her. When he pulled back, he smiled at her while wagging one eyebrow.

Sugar smiled at him. "Y'all have pretty good taste."

* * *

Beardo and Dave jogged down a tunnel, their orange badges urging them to move faster.

"Where is everyone? How long is it going to take to find them and the statue?" Beardo wondered.

"I have no idea," Dave replied. "Say, when we get out of here, want to vote off Sugar?"

"Vote off Sugar?" Beardo raised an eyebrow, peering over at Dave.

"Yeah, she's loud, obnoxious, reckless, shall I go on?"

"No need, I get the picture."

"And she's the reason Sky left our team. I want her gone."

Beardo stopped jogging, and stared at Dave more seriously. "So, you want some kind of alliance to get her out?"

Dave halted, and turned to Beardo, smiling. "When you put it that way, yeah! An alliance! That would be great! Can we make one?"

"Um," Beardo hesitated, unsure if an alliance was necessary.

The conversation was interrupted by the gopher that Shawn scared off scampering past them. Dave yelped, and jumped into Beardo's arms, the two boys staring at the retreating animal.

"Beardo, Dave, there you guys are!" Shawn's voice called, and the two named Rats looked in the direction the voice came from.

Shawn and Jasmine soon appeared on the scene. "Finally, we found you," Jasmine happily remarked before noticing something off. "Where's the other girl?"

"Not sure," Beardo replied as he dropped Dave from his arms, "what's new with you?"

Shawn puffed his chest out proudly. "Turns out my lack of showering to avoid being ambushed by zombies has paid off. The gophers can't stand my smell."

Dave's pupils shrank in shock, and he pointed warily at Shawn. "You don't shower? I touched you…" Dave's voice trembled, as did his whole body.

Jasmine shook her head. "That doesn't matter now. We need to find that statue, the other girl, and get out of here." Her knees began to wobble. "This place is starting to close in on me again…"

"Don't worry," reassured Shawn, "with my stench protecting us, we can get through here no problem."

At that moment, the floor shook, and giant gopher paws emerged from the floor, grabbing the Rats by their legs.

"…Oh crud…"

The quartet screamed as they were dragged into the floor.

* * *

Sugar sat on a pile of bones shaped like a chair, and held an autographed photo of Ezekiel wearing a hat, sunglasses, and his golden 'Z' necklace. "An autographed picture of yerself?" She scoffed, dropping the photo. "Yer going to have to do better than that to impress me."

Ezekiel walked over with a burnt, silver briefcase.

"Hey, isn't that the case the money from last season was kept in?"

Ezekiel nodded, opening it only to reveal the money had been turned into ashes.

Sugar's face fell into an unimpressed frown. "Yeah, that's not gonna cut it either. What else ya got?"

* * *

Elsewhere, Scarlett's slipper-like shoes splashed through a puddle of water as she ran, followed by Sky's sneakers.

"Ooh… I'm not feeling too good, Scarlett," Sky informed her teammate, who was tugging her along by the arm. She then belched loudly.

"The first symptom of chemical exposure is nausea. You should be fine as long as you don't contract any others," noted Scarlett, too focused on finding the statue to care. The chemical badges on both of them beeped, and Scarlett saw that hers had changed to red with a black exclamation point. "Five minute warning- we have to find that statue and exit as quickly as possible!"

"Scarlett, Sky!" The voice of Sammy cheered. "You're okay!"

Scarlett and Sky stopped running, and Sammy and Topher ran up to them.

"For the next five minutes, yes," Scarlett agreed.

Topher reached for the straps of his pack. "We should ditch the packs. They're slowing us down."

An intercom crackled to life, and Chris' voice could be heard. "Those packs of pain will stay on until I tell you otherwise, or your whole team is disqualified! Disqualified!"

"What do you know? Chris is watching us! I knew he wouldn't just leave us down here for dead," Topher remarked, removing his hands from the backpack straps.

"Uh, I wouldn't count on it," Chris chirped, surprising the team. "I'm more of a watcher than a saver." The four Maggots scowled in response to Chris' callousness.

"I'm starting to wonder if Chris is the kind of host I want to be like," Topher commented a bit sourly.

"Boom!" Sugar's voice exclaimed from far-off. "This is perfect!"

Sammy gasped, "That was Sugar! Maybe she found the statues!"

Scarlett turned, and pointed in a direction. "This way!" She tugged Sky along, and Sammy and Topher followed her.

* * *

A flash cut to the cavern Sugar was in, and the Mutant Maggots arrived from a tunnel at the edge of the room. When they entered, they stopped and gawked at what they saw.

In her hands, Sugar held up a large diamond. "This is my kinda gift!" boasted Sugar, who proceeded to hug the diamond.

"Yeah," Dave spoke up, the camera shifting from Sugar and Ezekiel to Dave and the other Toxic Rats, who were being held up by their packs by several gophers. "Great that your new boyfriend got you the perfect gift. Can you get him to let us down now?"

"Tunnel… underground… so tight…" Jasmine shivered, her arms wrapped around her midsection.

Woozy, Sky pointed ahead. "Look, the statue!"

Sitting on the armrests of Ezekiel's makeshift throne were the Gilded Chris statuettes the teams were assigned to recover.

"Great, so we just have to sneak around all those gophers to get to it. Perfect," Topher remarked sarcastically, taking note of all the gophers in the cavern.

A pair of gophers seemed to notice the newcomers, and started hissing at them, causing them all to shriek in terror.

"The other team's here," Shawn noticed. "We've got to get down from here somehow!"

"You got it," Beardo grinned, and unscrewed the lid of the firefly jar. "Go wild!" The fireflies flew out of the jar, and started hovering around the gophers' faces, forcing them to drop the Rats and their packs.

As the gophers started to get pestered by the fireflies, the gophers started to run rampant around the cavern. Dave was quick to get back on his feet, pointing. "Shawn, the statue!"

"I'm on it!" Shawn ran to the throne, and jumped on a passing gopher's back to reach it. Once up there, he snatched up the statue with the green base. "Statue retrieved!"

The Maggots gasped in shock as Beardo and Jasmine joined Dave on their feet. "Hey, check it! Mining carts!" Beardo realized.

Off to the side of the cavern was a set of mining carts.

"We can use them to get out of here!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Shawn agreed, moving to do so only for Ezekiel to appear and block his path. Shawn yelped in fright. Ezekiel's green-tinted skin and his bloodshot eyes could only make him think of one thing. "Zombie!" As he screamed the term, Ezekiel tackled him, and the two began a scuffle. The Toxic Rats' statue flew from Shawn's hand as they began to fight.

With all the chaos going on, the Maggots decided to make their move, and ran towards the throne. Scarlett and Topher were the quickest to move, while Sammy and Sky appeared sluggish, Sky with visible sweat starting to form on her forehead.

The intercom crackled to life once more, Chris immediately stating, "If you can hear this, congrats! You're not dead yet! Wherever you are, immediately discard your bomb- I mean backpacks, and run!"

All of the campers grimaced at Chris' words.

"Bombs?!" Topher repeated incredulously as he and Scarlett removed their backpacks, and Scarlett opened hers to verify the claim. "Okay, definitely questioning Chris' hosting style now!"

Scarlett and Topher placed their packs on Ezekiel's throne, and Scarlett snatched up the statue with the red base. "I have the statue. We need to exit immediately!"

Now at the carts, Beardo, Dave, and Jasmine were getting in. Beardo had gotten in first, and was watching for his teammates. "Shawn, Sugar! Let's go!"

"Sure, sure, whatever." Sugar said obliviously, walking to the carts with her pack still on.

Dave was about to climb into the carts when he and Jasmine heard voices.

"You guys," Sammy weakly called, "Sky and I don't feel so good." Dave and Jasmine turned around, and saw Sammy assisting Sky towards the carts while discarding their packs. Before they could get any closer, a gopher appeared and starting squealing at them, frightening Sammy.

"Sky!" Dave let go of the cart, and ran back to her.

Jasmine snapped out of her claustrophobic trance, and came to her senses. "Sammy!" She hurried after Dave. Scarlett and Topher then arrived at the carts, watching in surprise as their fellow campers went back for their teammates.

Shawn managed to get the upper hand in his fight with Ezekiel, and somehow took off his pack in the process. To finish the struggle, he punted Ezekiel across the cavern, over Sammy and Sky's heads, which were being protected by Jasmine holding the gopher back.

Dave assisted Sammy and Sky, putting himself under Sky's free arm, and hoisting her up with Sammy. "Don't worry, Sky, I've got you."

Barely able to stay conscious, Sky gazed at him. "D-Dave, if this is it… I need to tell you that Keith…"

"No time for that now, we've got to get out of here," replied Dave, cutting her off.

Jasmine barred her teeth as she tried to keep the gopher from attacking her. "Back off," she grunted.

Feet darted by the Toxic Rats' statue as a hand snatched it up from the floor.

"Yeah, pick on something your own size!" Shawn agreed, jumping up and smacking the gopher on the back of the head sharply with the statue.

Jasmine took her hands away from the gopher the moment it appeared to faint from the blow. She blinked at the gopher falling sideways, and then at Shawn appearing from behind it with their team's statue in hand.

"Shawn," she smiled kindly, "thank you."

"What're teammates for?" Shawn nodded, and then winced upon seeing the statue break.

Shawn and Jasmine were quick to join the others. Jasmine helped Dave get Sky and Sammy in the carts, and Beardo removed Sugar's pack, throwing it from the cart immediately. Shawn pushed the carts to get them going, and hurriedly climbed in before it could pick up too much speed.

Scarlett, Shawn, Beardo, Topher, and Dave all screamed as they cruised down the tracks. Sugar was too distracted by her large diamond to care, and both Sammy and Sky were too dizzy to make sense of what was going on. Scarlett held the statue tight as they went down their final downward slope.

* * *

Outside the mine, Chris and Chef stood, both men dressed in hazmat suits, waiting for the campers' arrival.

"They're really cutting it close," Chris said to Chef, who hummed in agreement.

The campers screamed as their carts flew out of the mine, over Chris and Chef's heads, and crashed into the ground nearby. The Maggots' statue slipped from Scarlett's hand, and bounced over to Chris' feet.

"The Maggots win!" declared Chris.

Scarlett and Topher cheered, being the only ones okay enough to do so.

Chris then pulled out a remote, looking to Chef. "All clear?" Chef nodded, and then Chris announced, "Executing Operation Doomsday!" He pressed the button on the remote, and the packs inside the mine exploded, causing an avalanche inside the mine, chunks of rock sealing up the tunnel the campers had exited from.

As the dust cleared, Scarlett approached Chris with a scrutinizing eye. "This wasn't about the statues at all, was it? It was all a ruse so you could get us to do your dirty work."

"Of course it was about the statues," Chris countered, "and as an added bonus, you just helped me seal off the toxic waste forever, and get the feds off my back. It's a win-win, for me."

The rest of the campers joined Scarlett, Sammy and Sky appearing to be feeling much better as was Jasmine, since she was no longer in the mine.

"That's really slimy, don't you think?" Shawn asked, not appreciating being used in such a way.

"Yeah, I just keep getting better," Chris mused before holding up a finger under his gloved hand, "Rats, hope you're hungry for marshmallows." He then stepped aside as Chef came over with a rather large hose. "But first before there's any permanent genetic damage…"

Chef chuckled darkly before spraying a powerful amount of water at the campers, the spray being so strong it pushed them off-screen.

* * *

Night fell over the camp. The Rats' cabin was briefly shown before the camera panned over to the Maggots' cabin, where Dave was standing with Sky beside it.

"So, Sky, we need to talk," Dave began to say. "See, after nearly dying today, being even closer to death than we usually have on this island, I realized that I need to say something." Dave took a deep breath. "I like you, Sky. A lot. After we nearly died, you nearly dying more than me, I realized I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I think you're awesome, athletic, cute, and really driven. What I'm trying to say is, do you want to go out sometime?"

Sky's jaw dropped, and then a sad frown appeared on her face. "Oh, Dave, that's really sweet. Very thoughtful." She thought for a moment, looking down as she twiddled with her fingers nervously. "I would love to say yes, but I can't."

Dave blinked in confusion. "What? Why not?"

"Dave, I was trying to tell you back in the mine. About Keith, he's my boyfriend back home."

Whatever background music that was playing during the scene came to a record-screeching halt as Dave blinked once more. His jaw then dropped as his eyes went wide.

"What?" He whispered softly.

"I'm really sorry, Dave," Sky apologized. "Everything you said was really sweet, and you're cute and supportive, and I like that about you. It's just, I can't date you. Not right now when I still have a boyfriend." She tried to put on a smile. "But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun as friends. We can still go jogging together, and compete in challenges and help each other out and stuff."

"But-you-the burping-jogging-boyfriend," Dave stammered as tears began to pool in his eyes.

"I'm so sor-!" Sky tried to apologize, but Dave cut her off.

"Leave me alone, Sky! Just leave me alone!"

Dave stormed away, going to the Rats' cabin, throwing the door to the boys' side open and slamming it as he went inside.

Sky stayed standing beside her team's cabin, hanging her head in guilt.

* * *

The bonfire burning brightly, the five Rats sat in the first row all in a line. Sugar sat at the far left with her diamond in her lap, and then Beardo sat next to her, Dave, Shawn, and Jasmine on the far right.

"The votes are in!" declared Chris. "Who will receive the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom, and leave the game forever? The following players are safe- Jasmine!" He called her name, and flicked a marshmallow in her direction.

Jasmine caught it with a smile on her face.

"Beardo!" Beardo cupped his hands, catching the treat.

"Sugar!" Sugar's marshmallow bounced off of her diamond, and right into her mouth, at which point she instantly began chewing.

"And… Shawn!" Shawn swiftly caught the marshmallow with one hand. "Dave, you're gone, just like your feelings for Sky!"

Dave sighed depressingly, unintentionally ducking as the glowing marshmallow was thrown his way. "Let's just get this over with."

A flash forward cut to down at the dock, where Dave was sitting in the bucket of the catapult.

"Can you be a little more upset and a little less depressed?" Chris said to him. "You're not making this very fun for me."

"Why should I?" Dave replied bluntly, continuing to look down at his lap. "The island sucked, the girl I liked had a boyfriend, and I nearly died. I asked the others to vote me off. I have nothing to be upset about."

Chris scoffed, a tad annoyed. "Fine, be a fun killer even if the pain of your broken heart is hilarious."

"Hold that catapult!" A familiar voice hollered. Chris and Dave turned to see Sugar approaching with her diamond in hand. Without a second thought, she jumped into the catapult's bucket, sitting on top of Dave and making him extremely uncomfortable. "I've got a big, shiny diamond and a college fund to fill!"

"Uh, the Hurl of Shame is for exits only," Chris retorted, raising an eyebrow at the pageant queen.

"So? I quit then! With this thing," Sugar held up her diamond, "Sugar's goin' to college!"

Chris eyed the diamond, and then smirked, "Not unless cubic zirconia has suddenly become priceless."

Sugar glanced at the host, a dumbfounded look on her face while Dave continued to grasp for breath. "Say what now?"

"Yeah, that diamond is practically worthless. Lamest mine ever! Why do you think I dumped all that waste in there?" Chris circled around the catapult.

Realizing her mistake, Sugar scrambled to get out of the bucket. "Wait! I change mah miiiind!" Before she could get out, she and Dave were flung into the night sky.

Once Chris saw that both were no longer in sight, he turned to the camera for his outro, "How will Sky take the fact that Dave's gone possibly because of her? What kind of insane challenge will the contestants have next? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **We are now officially at our halfway point of the season, and half of the cast has been eliminated. Dave's elimination might come across as a shock, but reflecting on his canon behavior, he's very spontaneous like that. After finding out Sky wouldn't date him, he pretty much told everyone to vote him off, which is exactly what he did here, with the additional knowledge of who Keith is. Personally, I like to think the Sky-Dave storyline went down better than in canon.**

 **As for Sugar, she was never meant to be the main antagonist for this cast like she was in Pahkitew Island. I see a lot of Anne Maria in Sugar. To me, Sugar is basically a mix of Owen and Anne Maria. She's got the sass, the tone-deaf singing, the blouse and the heels, and the crazy hair from Anne Maria while she also has Owen's big eater traits and gas jokes. To that end, I figured that she would accept a diamond from Ezekiel and quit in the same way that Anne Maria did.**

 **I loved this episode in canon for how intense and dangerous it was, and I really hope I did it justice in this story. It really sets the tone for the latter half of the season.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	8. TDRI Episode 8

**SideshowJazz1:** Thanks for the review! Yeah, Sky handled it as well as she could considering who was involved.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thanks for the review!

 **Joel Connell:** Don't worry about Sugar and Fang's feud, I have ideas for that down the road. This isn't the end of it. Also, I cannot answer your question about All-Stars because that would spoil the cast. I'm considering a little something more about Dave/Sky in the finale, and I'm not sure if he didn't suffer a psychotic breakdown.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Eat, Puke, and Be Wary will be quite the show, I promise that. No, Sugar did not pass the tooth off to someone else.

 **SilentSinger948:** Who's to say Dave didn't have a breakdown? And yeah, Amy's mutation will be different from Dakota's.

 **OmniPlanckInstant:** Thanks for the review! Scarlett Fever may or may not occur. I'm not sure how I'll make her big reveal work without an island to take over, but yes, Scarlett is the main antagonist of Revenge of the Island.

 **ThatBritishGuy:** Yeah, true that he didn't try to kill her. It probably has to do with the fact that she didn't accidentally lead him on as much, and he found out about the boyfriend before she kissed him instead of after the fact.

 **sdgeek:** To clear up any confusion, after Dave found out about Keith and that Sky wouldn't date him, he told the others to vote him off because Sky was pretty much the only thing he felt worth sticking around on a radioactive island for, and since he couldn't have her, he didn't see any reason to stay any longer. Sugar quit afterwards for the diamond since she thought it could pay for her college fund more than the million could. The reason she didn't do it sooner, or even volunteer to be eliminated, is because she's that much of a jerk and wanted to see who would get canned. Hope that clears up the ending scene. And we're not at the merge yet, we've got one more episode to go before that, and that's this one.

 **Fear The Darkness Inside:** Thanks for the review! We'll find out how Chris reacts to Topher, and how Sammy will react to Amy's mutation, in this episode.

 **Eager Reviewer:** Thanks for the compliment! Don't worry, everything's fine. I've just been a little slow in getting this episode out.

And now with the reviews answered, it's time to wake up some campers!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 8- The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated as the episode began, flash-cutting to clips of the previous episode. "Players went on an impromptu environmental cover-up, I mean, clean-up challenge, and tried not to get a toxic makeover like Amy. Jasmine struggled with her fear of tight spaces, and nearly broke Shawn's hand. Freak-zekiel had slightly more luck with the ladies than Human-zekiel."

During the recap, Dave and Sky were shown meeting after the challenge. "Sky finally told Dave who Keith was, and broke his heart. Dave was so heartbroken, he asked his team to send him packing." The footage then showed Sugar jumping in the catapult with her diamond. "Sugar was also sent packing, right after she found out that her diamond was actually worthless.

"Makes you want to reflect, don't it?" Chris asked as he was shown on the dock during the day with a mug with his face on it in his hand. "Maybe with a cup of McLean-brand instant coffee!" The host took a sip, and his face scrunched as he immediately spit it out. "Bitter- better, better than the last!" Holding the mug over the edge of the dock, he dumped the remaining coffee into the lake. A fish broke surface, and ended up puking in response to the coffee in its habitat.

Putting on a smile, Chris walked across the dock asking, "Who will survive? Who will wish they didn't? Find out right now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue intro)

* * *

The sun was halfway up the lake's horizon, and the loons crooned their morning greetings off-screen. Beardo was shown sleeping on a wooden raft in a close-up, which then panned over to show Shawn and Jasmine in the same position. The camera cut to Sammy and Sky sleeping on one side of another raft while Scarlett and Topher slept on the other side.

Tied to a lake buoy, a ticking clock was shown reaching the top of the six o'clock hour, and began ringing quite loudly. The noise was enough to make Shawn, Jasmine, and all of the Maggots snap awake.

"Wha? Where are we?" Sky asked, looking around them. The camera zoomed out from the Maggots' raft to show the two teams on two rafts floating in the lake water, along with a bathtub somehow, a couch, and a trunk full of clothes.

"Classic Chris," Topher commented rather pleasantly as he and Sammy were shown looking at Camp Wawanakwa far off into the distance, "one season he puts everyone in the cargo hold and drops them into Niagara Falls, and the next season he puts everyone adrift when they're asleep."

Sammy agreed, "Sure sounds like him." She then turned to Topher. "Wait, I don't remember anything after dinner."

Scarlett tapped her chin in thought for a moment, and then snapped her fingers. "Dinner, that explains it!"

* * *

The scene flashed to the mess hall the previous day, where Scarlett was being served dinner by Chef Hatchet. The burly man slapped some food onto her tray as she approached him.

Scarlett only took a moment to observe her meal. "Turkey buttolini? That seems rather fancy for you," she said, glancing up at the man.

"Whatever, genius girl," grumbled Chef before smirking. "Enjoy your naaap, er I mean, meal."

Regarding him with a skeptical glance, Scarlett once more looked at her dinner on her tray.

* * *

The scene returned to the Maggots' raft, all of them now standing up. "The turkey in turkey buttolini contains tryptophan, a chemical known to cause drowsiness in humans. It's possible that mutating the turkey enhanced its natural abilities," she explained to Sky. She smiled as she once more tapped her chin thoughtfully. "That actually has the basis for an interesting experiment."

Over on the Rats' raft, Shawn and Jasmine stood over their still-slumbering teammate, Beardo. Beardo seemed to switch between snoring regularly, and snoring random noises.

"Okay, the fact that he can do that in his sleep is kinda uncanny," Shawn remarked while looking between Beardo and Jasmine.

Jasmine kneeled down next to Beardo. "At least he isn't sleepwalking," she pointed out, and then jostled his shoulder. "Wake up, mate! Time to rise!"

Beardo stirred, and his eyes blinked open before his awakening fully registered.

"Whoa," he said as he sat up, "what happened last night?" He scratched at his afro until his mind finally processed where they were. "How'd we end up out here?"

As Beardo was caught up to speed, the Maggots gathered at the center of their raft.

"While this is pretty classic of Chris, it feels like it's on the lower end," stated Topher. "Usually he adds some kind of dangerous factor, like stocking the water with sharks."

Sammy winced frightfully. "Oh em gee, you don't think he did that, do you?!"

"We'll be fine," Sky assured her as she patted the nice twin on the shoulder, and then gestured to the junk also floating in the water with the teams' rafts. "Even if he did, the sharks probably wouldn't be able to find us among all this junk."

* * *

(Confessional- Sky)

Sky sighed as her confessional began rolling. "Yesterday, I found out that Dave left, and that he specifically asked his team to vote him off because he didn't want to be here anymore." She rested her hands on her legs as she looked down at them. "I didn't think he'd be that hurt by finding out I had a boyfriend. I could understand him wanting to leave after nearly dying in a toxic waste-infested mine, but leaving because of me not being able to date him?

"If I were in Dave's position, I would've stayed even though he had a girlfriend," she elaborated. She groaned as she put her face in her palms. "This whole season has been a bust so far. I can't keep a consistent winning streak, Sugar pretty much outed me to my original team, and now one of the few friends I have out here left probably because of me. How am I ever going to win this show?"

* * *

As Sky assured Sammy that they were safe, Topher glanced at Scarlett beside him. Scarlett had her back to him, and was glancing over the junk as well as their own raft.

"So, you forming a plan?" he inquired after a moment of silence.

"Of course," she nodded. "I can already predict what kind of challenge we're going to have, and am planning accordingly."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"With seven players left including myself, I'm quite annoyed that Chris hasn't announced the merge yet," noted Scarlett as she jotted down on a notepad in the outhouse. "That said, I think I have an idea of how to proceed in the game with who remains.

"For now, Beardo and Topher are relatively harmless to my plans," she said while looking over the notes she made. "Aside from his interesting ability to replicate sounds, Beardo does not appear to have any close ties and does not stand out from the remaining campers. Likewise, Topher does not possess any unique talents, and seems more fixated on Chris than winning challenges and the money.

"Sammy is above them in threat level. While athletic, she does not appear to have much in way of self-confidence, and mostly relies on Jasmine's friendship. With how close they are, Sammy's vote could be important when the merge arrives if she's still present. Sky is athletic as well, and has the right mindset for the game. Her one weakness is her lack of allies within the game, and I think that will serve my plans well.

"At the very top of my priority list are Shawn and Jasmine. While not the sociable type, Shawn displays a level of intelligence and athletics that I cannot very well ignore. Jasmine, on the other hand, is a triple threat. She's intelligent, athletic, and possesses a strong social game. Getting her out will be very tricky, both of them actually, and eliminating either will be very risky for my game.

"Thankfully," she concluded as she stashed the notepad away, "I have a safety net."

* * *

Once Scarlett's confessional ended, Chris and Chef, both men wearing life-jackets, rode up to the rafts on jetskis.

"Morning, suckers! How'd you enjoy your turkey buttolini?" Chris greeted.

Shawn shrugged in reply. "Eh, it was a little dry. It could've used a little more water and a couple pinches of more seasoning." He blinked as the camera pulled back to show Jasmine and Beardo staring at him weirdly. "What? Just because I prefer to prepare myself for the zombie apocalypse doesn't mean I don't know how to cook."

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"An outdoorsman," Jasmine began to say, "and a man who can cook? He's shaping up to be quite the catch, should I snag him up sometime." She smiled as she pounded her fist down onto an open palm.

* * *

Chris stood up on his jetski. "First things first," he reached behind him, and pulled out a photo of the immunity idol, "if any of you are still trying to find that McLean-brand invincibility sculpture I hid at the beginning of the season, you can stop now, somebody's already found it." He enjoyed seeing the distrustful glances several of the campers, including Shawn, Scarlett, Jasmine, Beardo, Sky, and Topher were throwing at each other. Sammy, on the other hand, looked a bit nervous about the news. "And speaking of digging things up, today's challenge is about winning the ultimate reward- life itself!

"Your first challenge is to race to the shore," he pointed at camp in the distance, "by any means possible! The first team there wins a handy reward; the last team gets a heinous penalty before you embark on a quest for buried treasure."

"You're using us to dig up buried treasure now?" Topher remarked, raising an eyebrow. "That's a step down from using us to seal off the mine. It's a good step down, but,"

Chris frowned in Topher's direction. "Zip it, Topher! I know about my phone, so consider yourself lucky that I have access to a number of back-up phones."

"You're the one that dropped it, and I was going to give it back!" Topher shot back.

"Whatever, game on!" Chris rolled his eyes as he and Chef put their jetskis in reverse, and backed away from the rafts.

Shawn rubbed his hands together as he went to the back of the raft. "Alright, let's get moving. We can start by using the sign as an oar, and as an improvised weapon." He gripped both hands on the sign's post, and started to pull.

"Great idea, Shawn," Jasmine agreed brightly, "about the paddle thing. Not so sure about the weapon thing, though." She joined him, and started tugging at the post.

Beardo stood back, and watched.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Jasmine's only been on our team for a few days, and it seems like she's really hit it off with Shawn," Beardo said. "Since Dave and Sugar both left the other day, it's clear that now I'm the odd one out." He then sighed as he glanced down at his feet before raising his eyes to meet the camera again. "I really hope we win this challenge, otherwise those two are more likely to vote me out than each other."

* * *

From afar, Scarlett watched as the three Rats worked together to tear off their sign and prepared to paddle. "While their idea is a clever one, it's not going to give them much rowing power," Scarlett summarized, turning to her teammates. "We're going to need to play to our strengths if we have a chance of beating them. Sky, Samey, both of you have an athletic build. You both get in the water, and kick from behind. Topher and I will paddle with our hands."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sky nodded, and then dove into the water.

"What about the sharks Chris probably have out here? We're dead meat if we're in the water," Sammy pointed out.

Scarlett dismissively waved her hand. "We'll cross that bridge if it appears. Right now, we need to get a lead on the Rats. I dread to think what the penalty could do to our chances of winning."

Sammy frowned, but reluctantly nodded. "Okay…" She jumped in the water, and joined Sky in pushing the raft.

The Rats were already on the move. Jasmine had taken to paddling with the sign while Shawn and Beardo rowed with their hands. As they continued, Beardo happened to look up and see the Maggots beginning to follow them.

"Hmm," hummed Beardo, "looks like they have people pushing from behind in the water."

"That's actually a good idea," Shawn spoke up, ceasing to paddle with his hand, leaving only Jasmine still paddling. "Maybe Jasmine and I should get in the water while you paddle with the sign."

Jasmine did the same, holding up the sign. "Right! Beardo, you take the-," she stopped when the raft bumped into something. She looked forward again, and met two giant, yellow eyes. The Outback explorer gasped as tentacles rose out of the water around the raft. "Giant squid!" Shawn and Beardo started to scream along with her.

Up in the sky, Chris and Chef returned, riding in a helicopter.

"Aw," cooed Chris, "it's playing with them."

The camera zoomed in on Jasmine with a very disgruntled expression on her face. "Bring me a little closer so I can hit you, ya wet drongo!" The camera pulled back to show the squid having wrapped its tentacles around the Rats. Feebly, Jasmine attempted to swipe at the squid with the sign. The raft also mysteriously vanished, possibly due to the squid.

Shawn struggled against his bonds. "Grr, I'm trained to fight zombies, not squids!"

"This is the worst morning I've had since the one after that night I subbed for the Homecoming DJ!" Beardo shouted.

The Maggots gasped as they continued to paddle their raft.

"Okay, I anticipated possible sharks, but not squids," Scarlett noted with a tone of surprise.

"Is that better, or worse than sharks?" Sammy inquired fretfully.

Ominous music began to play as a dorsal fin rose out of the water behind Sky, and then the full form of Fang emerged, snorting down Sky's neck. Feeling the breeze down her neck, Sky twisted her neck around, and she yelped in shock. As Fang opened his mouth to eat her, she did a front flip out of the water onto the raft, making Fang miss entirely.

"We've got company!" Sky alerted her teammates.

"Oh em gee," Sammy cried, scrambling out of the water and onto the raft as Fang began to circle it. "What do we do?"

Fang leaped out of the water, and landed on the team's raft, causing them all to scream.

After a moment, Sky composed herself, and scowled at Fang. "Step off!" Raising her leg, she gave him a swift kick to the male private area. Fang reacted as a human male would, and winced in pain, freezing up for long enough of a moment for Sky to shove him back into the water.

Topher winced in sympathy for Fang. "Remind me to never make you that mad."

"I told you," Jasmine grunted as the scene switched back to the Rats dealing with the squid, "to let us go!" As a last straw, she threw the sign at the squid, and it smacked the creature in the eye, forcing it to drop all three of them into the water.

The camera panned to the right, behind the squid as the three campers broke surface.

"Swim for it!" hollered Beardo, and the three started swimming away as fast as possible.

On the Maggots' raft, Scarlett approached Sky with an impressed smile. "Well done, Sky. I was right to put you on swimming duty."

"Oh, um, thank you, Scarlett…" stammered Sky, unsure of how to take Scarlett's compliment.

"Yeah, that was great and all," Topher added, walking over with Sammy. "What're we going to do about that guy, though?" He pointed over Scarlett and Sky's shoulders, and they turned to look.

Apparently while they were talking, the squid had recovered and had approached their raft. Yelping in fright, all four team members huddled together at the edge of the raft furthest away from the squid. The squid raised its tentacles.

"Oh em gee, we're going to lose!" Sammy exclaimed, and then blinked. "Wait a minute! Everyone stay back!" Forming a scowl on her face, she stepped forward.

"What are you doing?" "Are you crazy?"

Clenching her hands into fists, Sammy started yelling at the squid, "You ruin everything! It's always me, me, me! This is all your fault!"

"Samey!" "What did you do?!" "It's going to kill us!"

The creature didn't take kindly to being yelled at, and lifted a tentacle high into the air, curling it into a near-fist. Spikes then appeared on the curled tentacle.

Scarlett, Sky, and Topher all screamed in terror upon seeing the spikes. A pause sign then appeared over their faces as they appeared to freeze. Chris then rose up onto the screen, wearing a hat that oddly looked like the squid.

"Will Samey's shouting outmatch the squid's punching? Will the Maggots beat the Rats? Find out after the break!" Chris announced, and then the show went black for commercial.

* * *

When the show faded back in, Sammy jumped back to her teammates, and the squid smashed its spiked tentacle into where she had been previously standing, launching the team off their raft.

The team screamed as it soared through the air. Down below in the water, the Rats swam until they heard the screams and saw the shadows pass overhead. Shocked, they stopped to tread water, and watched as the team finally landed.

The team groaned in pain, laying on the beach in awkward positions. Sky was first to get on her hands and feet.

"Hey, we hit land! We're in first!" declared Sky.

Weakly, her team voiced their cheers in a painful tone.

Sky got up on her feet, and Scarlett soon joined her as the camera got closer to the team, fixing her glasses into the correct position.

"That was a reckless course of action," Scarlett reprimanded Sammy as she and Topher joined the two standing girls on their feet. "Please, think out your actions more carefully next time."

"Sorry," Sammy apologized while fixing her skirt, "I panicked and I guess I just… acted."

"Since it got us in first, and on land, I'm not complaining," Topher interjected, raising a hand to his hair. "Though, I do hope I don't have any hairs sticking out of place." After checking his hair, he grinned at his female teammates, "besides, I think we won."

"Win you did," Chris confirmed, leaning out of the helicopter. "And because you won, you get these!" He held out a rolled up sheet of paper and an open compass, dropping them down to the team.

Scarlett caught the paper, which unrolled to reveal a map, and the compass. "A map and compass? That is useful."

"Oh look," Chris said as he was seen in the helicopter again, pointing at the shore. "Look who just washed up!"

Jasmine, Shawn, and Beardo crawled onto the beach, soaking wet.

"That was the longest swim I ever had," Shawn panted, collapsing onto his stomach.

"I don't think I can eat calamari without thinking of that squid again," remarked Beardo.

"We gave it our best, team," Jasmine said, "we just didn't get as lucky as they did."

"All three of you put a sock in it!" The trio looked up at Chris, who was now holding a remote. "The second part of today's challenge started out as a practical joke involving classic Total Drama competitor, Gwen, but it's turned into more of a rescue mission." He pressed the button on the remote.

The Maggots turned toward a widescreen monitor that had apparently been rolled onto the beach by the skinny intern with his hair covering his eyes. The monitor powered on, and Gwen could be seen rubbing her head while sitting inside a wooden chest.

"What the," she stuttered, her face growing increasingly panicked. "Oh no, I'm buried alive? Again?! Chris!" She started hollering as she pounded a fist on one of the walls.

Sky glared up at Chris' helicopter. "Burying someone alive is not cool, Chris!"

"I agree," Jasmine nodded from where her team was standing, all three members now dried off. She wrapped her arms around her midsection. "I'm getting chills just looking at her panic like that."

"Relax, it's all good," Chris said. "That's why we're using the buddy system. Instead of letting last year's players have all the fun, we brought in one of this year's duds."

The campers turned their attention back to the monitor, and watched as the camera in Gwen's space zoomed out to show Amy, still dressed in her intern outfit and bald, asleep beside the gothic girl.

"You put Amy in with her?" Sammy questioned incredulously, and then calmly paused. "Huh, I don't actually have a problem with that. After how many times she's done that to me since we were eight, it's actually kind of refreshing." A pleasant smile formed on her face, which quickly was dropped. "Still feel bad for Gwen, though."

Chris chuckled, "That'll teach her to not be so rough with filing my nails. Maggots, you've got your compass and your map to the general vicinity of the chest at the northern tip of the island. Now go!"

With their rewards in hand, the Maggots turned on their heels, and sprinted further inland. The Rats made to hurry after them, but Chef landed the helicopter in their way before they could pursue their opponents.

"Not so fast! To the losers go the penalty belts," Chris turned to Chef and requested, "Chef, lock them in!"

A dark grin on his face, Chef got out of the helicopter with metal belts slung over one shoulder. He quickly locked the belts around the three Rats' waists, their hands in handcuffs attached to the belt.

"These are pretty heavy. About one hundred pounds?" Shawn guessed as he attempted to move his hands.

"One hundred and twenty," Chris corrected before sticking a metal detector on Shawn's back.

Beardo raised an eyebrow. "How's a metal detector supposed to help us find a wooden chest?"

"It's not," Chris took out a megaphone and shouted through it, "now go-go-go!"

Taken aback by the sudden shouting, the trio sprinted off in the direction that the Maggots went.

* * *

Above the ground where Gwen and Amy were buried, the audience was shown where the chest was located, and the cameras picked up the sound of Gwen's pounding on the chest.

"Ugh, where's my-" Gwen cut off her muttering as she rummaged around, and picked up her phone. She began dialing a number. "Lousy Chris and his stupid game on his crummy show…" As the phone began to dial, she put it to her ear.

The screen split in half to show Chris answering, "Hello?"

"You've gone too far this time, McLean. You can't-"

"Ugh, what's with all the noise?" A new voice joined the conversation. Gwen looked down as her half of the screen pulled back to show Amy waking up. "Gross, did the circus kidnap me and put me in a box with one of their clowns or something?"

Gwen opened her mouth to retort, but Chris beat her. "Amy, glad you're awake!"

"Yeah, no thanks to you! It's probably your fault that I'm stuck in some sort of box with a clown," Amy snapped.

"I'm not a clown, you cue ball," retorted Gwen.

"What did you just call me?!"

The split screen removed Gwen and Amy's half as Chris pulled his phone away from his ear, listening to Gwen and Amy erupt into a shouting match.

Ending the call, he lowered his phone and shrugged at Chef, "Eh, I'm sure they'll work themselves out."

* * *

The Maggots skidded to a stop in front of a swamp, and began to cough as the camera panned over to the right to display its sickly green color and several waste barrels littered around.

"Ugh, this place smells worse than Keith's room the one time I visited and he forgot to clean up," Sky remarked, covering her nose.

Topher, holding the map, looked at it. "According to the map, Gwen and Amy were buried straight across the swamp from here."

"Are you saying we might have to go straight through the swamp?" Sammy clarified, a bit horrified by the idea.

Scarlett pondered the question. "It would be the fastest way through… I say we go for it."

"Me too," Sky agreed.

Sky and Topher went on ahead, and Sammy was about to follow when Scarlett grabbed her arm. "Before we progress further, may I speak to you for a moment?"

"Um, sure, what is it?" Sammy nodded.

"In the event we lose today's challenge, who would you vote for?"

"Uh, I don't know. I kind of like everyone left."

"So you seem troubled with indecision," assumed Scarlett, "well, if I may make a suggestion, I think it would be wise to vote for Sky."

"Sky," the nice twin gasped, "why her?"

"For one, she's the newest member of our team. She was on the opposing team at the beginning, and may still have connections to them when the teams merge. My second reason is she's incredibly athletic. We did witness her take down Fang this morning, correct?"

"Yeah, I guess she is pretty strong…"

"Total Drama is more of a physical game than a mental one," Scarlett reasoned, tapping the side of her head for emphasis. "Our own games are better off if we eliminate the strong ones before they can do the same to us. Just something I'd think about." Her final word on the subject said, Scarlett began to wade into the swamp.

Biting her lip in thought, Sammy gazed downward for a second before following her teammate to catch up with the others.

* * *

A flash forward showed the Rats arriving at the swamp's edge just like the Maggots before them. A purple frog tried to use its tongue to snatch up a similarly purple dragonfly, but the dragonfly bit down on the frog's tongue, making it cry out in pain.

"Oh man, I didn't think I'd come across something that smells worse than me!" Shawn griped.

Jasmine bent down as best as she could next to the ground. "Look, the Maggots left footprints, and they lead into the swamp."

"They went _into_ the smelly swamp?" Beardo inquired. "Shouldn't they have gone _around_ the smelly swamp?"

"If it's the way to Gwen and Amy, then we should probably go the same way," Jasmine reasoned.

Shawn shrugged as best as he could while his arms were restrained. "I already smell pretty bad so I guess I've got nothing to lose. Let's go." He ran forward, and Jasmine soon joined him.

"I better not smell like toxic swamp for the rest of my life!" Beardo hollered, and followed them.

The dragonfly from before flew past the camera, dragging the frog by its tongue.

* * *

Scarlett and Sammy waded through the swamp, attempting to catch up to Sky and Topher. The latter two were quite a few feet ahead of them.

Sky looked back at Scarlett, and turned her attention to Topher. "I don't trust Scarlett. Did you know she kicked me in the head in the mine? She didn't sound very apologetic when she apologized."

Topher shrugged as he continued to read the map while he walked. "Scarlett's just very focused on the game. Don't take it personally if she sounds cold. I don't think she's close to anybody."

As Topher talked, he didn't realize that his path was rising as his feet walked over a green, scaly back. The head of an alligator rose from the swamp, revealing it had several spikes protruding from its head. Rising on its hind legs and revealing tentacle forelegs, it threw Topher off its back, and roared as Sky ran away screaming.

The Maggots clustered together as Topher got to his feet, sputtering swamp water. They all shrieked, running forward and narrowly avoiding the squidgator diving at them.

"We need to ascend to higher ground! Into that tree!" Scarlett ordered.

The team ran to a tree standing in the middle of the swamp.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"This island gets scarier and scarier with every challenge," Sammy sighed, staring into the camera. "I wish Jasmine was still on my team. I knew that as long as I stuck with her, I'd be safe from whatever kind of monster we meet here including Amy." Sammy grasped her left arm, and started rubbing it up and down.

* * *

Sky hopped up onto a tree branch, followed by Topher.

"Come on, hurry!" Sammy pleaded with Scarlett as the genius attempted to climb the tree.

"Note to self- never dismiss exercise as a waste of study time," Scarlett remarked, finally getting to safety on a branch.

Sammy moved to climb to the branch Scarlett was on, and looked over her shoulder, seeing the squidgator rushing towards them. She yelped, and tried to climb.

"Quick, grab my hand!" Scarlett reached a hand out down to Sammy.

Sammy raised an arm up, and grasped Scarlett's hand. Before either could do anything, they looked up to see the squidgator fast approaching. They both screamed in fright.

Just as the squidgator appeared as if it was going to attack, a surprising figure slammed down on top of it.

"Fang!" The four Maggots exclaimed, shocked that they had been saved by another mutant that had attempted to kill them.

The mutant shark growled at them, apparently wanting to get revenge for earlier. Before he could make good on his threat, the squidgator, apparently not happy that Fang had interrupted its own attack, wrapped its tentacle forelegs around Fang, and chucked him away, proceeding to leap in Fang's direction to attack further.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"So there we are, Sammy about to be eaten by a squidgator when Fang, of all people, er, mutants saves us!" Topher declared, making animated motions with his hands as he told the story. "Sure, he intended to attack us too, but hey, whatever works. I wish I had popcorn so I could enjoy the show." Topher finished his confessional with a grin.

* * *

As Fang continued to wrestle with the squidgator, the Maggots dropped down from their safe zone back into the swamp water.

"Let's go, while they're distracted by each other!" Sky declared.

"Little problem with that," Topher spoke up, holding up a torn map. "The map's ruined so we have no idea where to go next."

Scarlett smirked, "Not necessarily. Chris told us that we had to go north, and I still have the compass." She held up the device, and then read it. "According to this, north is that direction," she stated while pointing past the tree they had just been hiding in.

Sammy grasped her arm nervously. "You mean past that thing of prickly vines?"

The camera panned over, and showed an ominous-looking cluster of spiky vines in the swamp.

Scarlett held up the compass again, and checked. "Unfortunately, yes."

Sky eyed the vines warily. "They look too thick. We'll have to go around. Follow me!" She ran off, and the rest of the team followed her.

As Fang managed to get the upper hand over the squidgator, he did not notice that he had an audience watching. The camera pulled back to show the Toxic Rats watching the scene.

"This is scary for me to admit, but I think I'm actually rooting for Fang to win," Beardo remarked to his teammates.

"Agreed," Jasmine nodded, "I'm just happy that it's not us he's attacking. Hopefully with the both of them occupied, we can just sneak past."

Shawn glanced off to the side. "Hey, there go the Maggots!" He jerked his body in the Maggots' direction, the camera briefly cutting to the team to show them going around the vines.

"Um, you guys, we've got company!" Shawn and Jasmine's heads swiveled around, and they gaped when they saw two smaller squidgators slinking towards them and Beardo.

"Run!" Jasmine commanded, and she along with the boys ran just as the squidgators attempted to pounce.

* * *

Inside the chest, Amy was now sitting upright across from Gwen, both girls glaring daggers at each other.

"I swear, when I get out of here, I'm going to kill Chris!" Amy growled. "He better sleep with one eye open tonight."

"For once, I agree with you," Gwen snapped, before raising an eyebrow. "Um, what's going on with your skin?"

Amy looked at Gwen in annoyed confusion. "What are you talking about?" She lifted up one hand, and gasped.

Dozens and dozens of black spots, much like her mole, er beauty mark, began to appear all over her visible skin.

"What's happening to me?!" Amy demanded, growing increasingly panicked with every new black spot's appearance.

* * *

Up above ground, the Maggots had just arrived in the clearing that Gwen and Amy were buried in, having gone around the thorny vines. They all came to a halt when they heard a loud, muffled screech of horror from Amy.

"That was my sister!" Sammy exclaimed in recognition.

Topher glanced around, wondering, "Where did it come from?"

"It sounds like it could've come from anywhere," Sky replied, also looking.

"Quickly, everyone spread out and start digging!" Scarlett ordered, and the team got to work.

As the Maggots began digging four individual holes, the Rats arrived on the scene.

"It looks like they've started digging already," Jasmine noted.

"Speaking of digging, how are we supposed to dig when our arms are like this?" Beardo questioned, thrusting his arms out as best as he could.

Shawn glanced down at his penalty belt. "Chris never said we had to dig like this. There's probably a way to get these off."

Jasmine hummed in thought, "Chef locked these belts onto us with a key, so…"

"There must be a key to unlock them," Beardo concluded, and glanced at the metal detector on Shawn's back. "The metal detector! Maybe we're supposed to use that to find the key that unlocks the belts!"

Jasmine faced Shawn. "Shawn, bend over and see if you can detect a metal key!"

Shawn did as she asked, and bent over, starting to search.

Sammy poked her head out of her hole she was digging in, and gasped. "The Rats are here, hurry!" She then went back to digging, but at a much quicker pace. The other Maggots were quick to do so as well.

Awkwardly, Shawn walked around with the metal detector facing the ground, and eventually he came to a small, black rock at which point the metal detector started going off.

"Hey, I think this is it!" He called, kicking the rock and revealing two keys underneath it, one of them smaller than the other. "Score!"

* * *

A flash forward showed the penalty belt falling at Beardo's feet, unlocked at last.

Beardo smiled as he massaged his wrists. "I'm so glad that's over."

"The penalty may be over, but the challenge isn't," Jasmine said, holding up the larger of the two keys. "We still need to dig up the chest that Sammy's sister is in, and I think we're supposed to unlock it with this key."

"Guess we better start digging then," Shawn added while massaging his wrists as well, "maybe we should try a spot near where the keys were found."

"Somebody get me out of here!" Gwen's voice shouted from underground.

"Hey, make them get me out of here too!" Amy also yelled.

Sky peeked out of her hole. "Anyone find the chest?"

Scarlett, Sammy, and Topher all rose their heads out of their respective holes, giving her negative replies.

At the Rats' area, Shawn and Beardo dug with their hands while Jasmine dug with the metal detector, it being a surprisingly good shovel. After some quick digging, the detector smacked against something that was not dirt.

"We found it!" Jasmine shouted excitedly, Shawn and Beardo cheering along with her.

Chris and Chef flew over the area in their helicopter, Chris declaring, "The Toxic Rats win!"

The Maggots clambered out of their holes, and groaned at their loss.

Beardo unlocked the chest, and Gwen got out. "Thanks, all of you really," she nodded to the Rats before climbing out of the hole, pulling out her phone and dialing a number. "Chris? Chris? You better pick up the phone, you sadistic _bleep_!" She walked off, passing the Rats as she did so. The Rats watched, wincing at the curse.

Sammy, at this point, jogged over to the Rats' hole, and looked down inside it. "Amy!"

The Rats looked back down their hole, and grimaced, backing out of their hole to give some space.

Amy, bald and covered in black spots of varying sizes, hauled herself out of the hole. She was breathing heavily, and her whole body was shaking with anger.

To put it simply, Amy was pissed, and that didn't even begin to cover it.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

Sammy sat on the outhouse toilet with her hands in her lap, trying to look as composed as possible. "So, it turns out that Amy being down in the mine longer than thirty minutes did have some effect on her. She didn't die, which is nice, but it looks like she got some kind of mutation. I don't know what it does, but it makes her look like a human Dalmatian.

"After she was freed by Jasmine and the Rats, she went on this tangent that I'm pretty sure won't be aired on TV, and she eventually got taken away by some other interns," she explained, shrugging. "I feel a little bad that happened to her, but I also can't deny that she deserved it after everything she's put me through when we were growing up."

* * *

The sun had set by the time the campers found their way back to the campgrounds. Chris was no help, as usual, and made no attempt to guide them back, so they relied on Shawn and Jasmine's exploration knowledge and Scarlett's intelligence to find the way.

Later that evening, Sky sat on the porch of the Maggots' cabin, tapping her foot against one of the steps as she considered her options. Behind her, the door to the girls' side swung open and then shut again.

"May I speak to you for a minute?" requested Scarlett, sitting down beside Sky.

"Oh, sure! What is it?" Sky lifted her head up, listening attentively.

Scarlett adjusted her glasses before speaking, "I would like to make a suggestion regarding your vote tonight. I'm voting for Samey, and I think you should do so as well."

"Samey?" Sky repeated, an incredulous tone in her voice. She looked back at the girls' side of the cabin, and then around the camp before facing Scarlett again. "Why? She's so nice!"

"Nice she may be, but she's not that useful," Scarlett answered in a straight manner. "While she did help us win the first part of the challenge, she has very low self-confidence and from what I've observed, is very close to Jasmine. Currently, Jasmine is on the other team and inaccessible to her, however if the merge comes soon, which I assume will happen in the near future considering how many contestants are left, Samey may have a vote in her corner which then makes her a threat."

"I don't know," Sky replied hesitantly, looking down at her feet.

Scarlett stood up from her seat. "Think about it, eventually you'll come to see that is the only logical conclusion that is well for our futures." She then went back inside the cabin.

Sky sat alone on the porch, and sighed as she began thinking over her choices with the new perspective that Scarlett had given her.

* * *

As the Maggots sat in front of the bonfire and Chris stood in front of his podium, Sammy raised her hand while asking, "How's Amy?"

Chris shrugged, "I dunno. Fine, I guess. After her tantrum, Chef and I decided she had lived out her punishment and sent her home."

"This wouldn't happen to partially be because she swore to kill you for her condition several times?" Topher inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Eh, that too," Chris bobbed his head side to side as Chef arrived in his hazmat suit with the box containing the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom. "Okay, time to send one of you hurling. The safe players are… Topher!"

Topher smiled as he caught his marshmallow.

"Scarlett!" Scarlett smirked, catching her marshmallow as well.

Sammy and Sky tensed up, realizing the vote was down to them. "Samey, Sky, one of you are about to receive the marshmallow that no one wants to eat, and that one is…"

Sky clenched her hands into fists, narrowing her eyes at Chris, as if daring him to say her name. Sammy, on the other hand, bit her lip and began rubbing her arm. The pair exchanged brief glances in anticipation before returning their attention to Chris.

"…Sky!"

Sky gasped as Sammy sighed in relief, slouching over in her seat. "What?!" Sky demanded, standing up.

Chef threw the green-glowing marshmallow at her, and she did a backflip to avoid it.

"I don't understand," Sky turned to her team, and gestured to them before gesturing to herself. "You guys voted _me_ off?!"

"Sorry, Sky…" Sammy apologized, averting her gaze.

Topher shook his head. "Don't look at me."

Sky was pretty sure that was his way of saying he didn't vote for her, but she had voted for Sammy as Scarlett suggested, Sammy voted for her apparently, but that meant in order to get the majority of the votes for her to leave, Scarlett would've had to… Oh!

"Scarlett, you _lied_ to me?" Sky glared at Scarlett.

"Yes, I did," Scarlett answered, folding her arms over her chest haughtily. "Don't take it personally. Total Drama is a very physical game in regards of challenges. I was just making it easier for the rest of us to win."

Sky stared at her quietly for a minute, and then spoke. "You know, I'm a big believer in good sportsmanship, and what you just did was very unsportsmanlike, just like Sugar when she eavesdropped on my confessional." She looked at Sammy and Topher next. "Just so you know, Samey, Scarlett told me to vote for you."

Sammy gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as her gaze darted over to Scarlett.

"If I were either of you, I'd watch out for Scarlett," warned Sky before turning on her heel and marching down to the dock with Chef.

Topher leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head. "Wow… talk about a dramatic exit."

Down at the Hurl of Shame, Sky had already climbed into the bucket, and Chris stood by her with Chef operating the lever for once.

"You look mad," Chris teased, a light smile on his face.

"Gee, I wonder why," Sky replied crossly, her arms folded. "You know, I'm glad I'm leaving. This game has been awful to me, and I don't think I want to play with a bunch of people who aren't going to play fair even under your constant bending of the rules."

"What's fun about rules if you don't bend them?" Chris rhetorically asked before motioning to Chef.

"Rules are there to be fair!" Sky shouted as Chef pulled the lever, and she was flung into the night sky.

Chris chuckled, hearing Sky's scream fade, and then turned his attention to the camera. "Another one gone! We never did find out who has the invincibility statue? Will we find out next time? Will the merge ever come? Tune in next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **Sky is a character that I've had a constantly changing opinion of over the years since her debut. I like her, but I also don't like her in a sense. At first, I loved the idea of her and Dave together, even though their story ended on a disastrous note. I even wrote a fanfic about Sky patching things up between her and Dave for Christmas one year. Eventually, I got over the ship, and I owe some of that to Fangren, who got me to ship her with Eva instead. While I don't love Sky as much anymore, I would still vote her as winner of Pahkitew Island over Shawn. Sky is a bit of a hard character to interpret, and that was something I thought about while writing Sky's arc during this story. In the end, I decided to interpret her as a team player and also a bad decision-maker. Throughout her time in the competition, Sky made several seemingly bad choices while acting as her team's unofficial leader. She let Shawn lead the team in episode 3, and they lost; she went into the cave in episode 4, and got caught by the mutant spider when she should've waited for Dave to come back with Sugar; she continued to let Max man the seagull cannon in episode 5, and she was knocked unconscious, her team losing that challenge afterwards; and she made a bad choice of words in her confessional that Sugar overheard, leading to Sugar getting most of the team to ostracize her. In short, Sky is athletic and a team player, but when it comes to decisions, she's a bit lousy. Let me know what you think of my interpretation of her character.**

 **Even though she's an intern, Amy was my first choice for a character to shove into the treasure chest with Gwen. I definitely think that Chris and Chef would put her in there as part of their little punishment for her and for sake of convenience already having her around. In a way, this almost makes up for there not being an intern with Bridgette back in episode 5 like canon had Dakota, who was an intern at the time. Amy's mutation was random, not entirely sure if the black spots all over her body are the full mutation, or if they do something more that's even more bizarre. I also decided with Amy as pissed off at Chris and Chef she is now, she has suffered enough and should go home.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	9. TDRI Episode 9

**Nicky Haugh:** Yes, indeed.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Thanks for the review! And thanks for enjoying my interpretation of Sky's character.

 **sdgeek:** Thanks for liking my portrayal of Scarlett's evil side. Her evil side was there in canon, you just had to pay attention to details like her first words when she first appeared in the first episode and the knives in her globe in her audition tape. I think she would've strategized in canon if Max wasn't always bothering her. Thanks for liking my interpretation of Sky. Only time will tell with All-Stars.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Yeah, Amy took her mutation a lot harder than Dakota did, and yeah, it'll be easier to tell the twins apart now. I wouldn't get my hopes up about this event helping Amy and Sammy's relationship. Someone I follow once said that abuse survivors don't need to have a good relationship with their abusers. I forget who told me that, but it's good advice about characters that have bad blood between them. She's a b about the way Gwen looked for the same reason she is to Sammy, because she's a b.

 **That British Guy:** Yeah, she made some mistakes that cost her game.

 **OmniPlanckInstant:** It's okay to have mixed feelings about Sky. I do too.

 **SilentSinger948:** I'm glad that you liked my portrayal of Sky. Yeah, I felt it would be cheap to have Amy mutate the same way Dakota did, so I came up with my own mutation for her. Will the mutation make her become nicer? Maybe, or maybe not? And yeah, I felt like Max really held Scarlett back from her potential, and that's part of why I got him eliminated so early on. With him gone, Scarlett can really play.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Okay... sure?

 **Joel Connell:** Thanks for the review! Interesting predictions. Let's see if your're right.

Reviews have been answered. Get ready, it's merge time!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 9- Grand Chef Auto

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated as clips from the previous episode were shown. "Our players went on a hunt for buried treasure, aka Gwen and Amy.

"Scarlett began a plot to eliminate physical players from her game. Smart move," he continued over footage of Scarlett writing notes in the confessional, then talking to Sammy in the swamp, and finally talking to Sky on the cabin porch. The footage then changed to the elimination ceremony. "In the end, Sky got hurled because of Scarlett's plans, and now Scarlett just might have a target on her back.

"Maybe not such a smart move after all," Chris chuckled as the recap footage came to an end, switching to him on the Dock of Shame. "Who will be the next hurl, and how will we injure them before hand? Find out right now, right here, on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue intro)

* * *

On a tree branch, a pink bird sat innocently, chirping a greeting to the morning as an equally pink tentacle slithered up behind it and swatted it away. A siren began to sound, and the camera pulled back to show the tree squid blinking its eye in the direction the siren was coming from.

Chris stood on top of the Maggots' cabin, wearing an old war helmet and cranking the siren. The remaining campers congregated to see what the commotion was about; Scarlett, Sammy, and Topher came out of the Maggots' cabin; Beardo came from the Rats' cabin; and Jasmine and Shawn came walking up to the cabins with their backs to the camera. Once everyone was present, Chris stopped cranking.

"Good morning, campers!" The host greeted cheerily. "Today, we have a very special treat!"

Sammy gasped excitedly, "Packages from home?"

Beardo raised an eyebrow from the Rats' porch, guessing, "A private concert?"

Shawn pumped a fist. "Government-issued zombie apocalypse gear!"

"Nope," Chris answered, shaking his head and causing Shawn to frown, lowering his pumped fist. "It's merge day! No more Team Rat, and no more Team Maggot!" Chris jumped off the Maggots' roof, and grunted off-screen as he made his landing.

Topher laughed at Chris failing his landing while Scarlett smirked and Sammy appeared concerned.

Dusting himself off as he stood, Chris scowled at Topher's laughter before continuing to say, "From now on, it's every man, woman, and Samey for themselves!" Sammy's concern turned into a glare of annoyance at Chris' mean-spirited joke. As she glared at him, Scarlett and Topher shared a sinister look between each other.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"The merge at last," Scarlett stated while folding her hands on her lap politely. "Now that I'm no longer tied down by inferior intelligence, I'm free to act as I desire." She reached behind herself, and pulled out her notebook, looking over her notes. "Sky's elimination was a good start to my strategy for the second half of the competition, and now I need to focus on eliminating the other two major threats to my victory. Being without a team any longer, it shouldn't be too hard to succeed."

* * *

"Um, why are you coming over here?" Beardo asked as Chris walked over to the Rats' cabin.

"You'll see," Chris mysteriously replied before pulling out a walkie-talkie. "Chef, drop it like it's hot!"

In a helicopter, Chef grinned, and pressed a button on his joystick. Outside the helicopter, a large cube of concrete was detached, and quickly descended out of the air.

Their eyes going wide with horror, Topher and the girls ran from their cabin porch screaming. The scene cut to Beardo and Chris, the latter nonchalantly closing his eyes and the former raising his arms up protectively while also screwing his eyes shut. A loud crash occurred and chunks of wood flew past them. Once the wood shower was over, Beardo hesitantly opened his eyes.

Shawn, Jasmine, Topher, and Sammy were all on their butts, staring at the newly destroyed cabin, parts of it splintering out from underneath the concrete block. Scarlett was chest down and facing away from the wreckage.

"You crushed our cabin with a block of solid concrete?!" Sammy exclaimed incredulously.

Chris smugly said, "I had a bunch leftover from building a monument to myself. I call it, Mount Chrismore!"

The monument in question was shown. It was a fairly large mountain-like monument in the shape of Chris' head. A pair of mutant seagulls perched on top of it, and one of them pooped on it, its defecation landing on Chris' left eye and making it look like it had a tear falling down its face. The seagulls crooned with laughter, and gave each other a high-five with their wings.

Back at the campgrounds, the rest of the campers joined Beardo and Chris over by the Rats' former cabin as Chris continued to explain, "From now on, you'll all share one tiny, cruddy, little cabin!"

"But all our stuff was in there!" Sammy protested.

Chris raised a finger. "Yes, and because I'm nice and not heartless, I'll help you get it out." Sammy and Topher briefly smiled until Chris held up a pickaxe. The camera pulled back, and the pickaxe was shown to be small enough to be held between Chris' thumb and index fingers. "One McLean-brand pickaxe, children-sized!" He flicked it over to the campers, and Scarlett yelped in pain.

Scarlett was shown rubbing her forehead, grumbling indignantly as Topher examined the pickaxe now in his hand.

"Enjoy! Later, taters!" Chef's helicopter came around, a rope ladder hanging from it. Chris climbed on, and as Chef swept Chris away, Chris had the misfortune of being low enough to smack into the concrete block along the way. "Ow, Chef!"

* * *

A flash forward showed Jasmine, Shawn, and Beardo standing by the wreckage of the Maggots' former cabin.

"Man, I'm so glad that wasn't our cabin," Beardo remarked.

Shawn shrugged his shoulders, humming in indifference. "It doesn't really matter to me. I don't even sleep in a cabin."

Putting her fists on her hips, Jasmine glanced down at the boys. "Even so, we should help them get their stuff out. It'd be the right thing to do."

Beardo nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's give them a hand." He walked over to the wreckage, intending to help.

At that moment, Sammy walked up to Jasmine and Shawn from behind. "Hey, Jasmine! I was thinking, since we're no longer on separate teams, want to work together again? This time in an alliance?"

Jasmine smiled at her friend. "That's a mighty keen idea there, Sammy. I'd be willing." She glanced at Shawn. "How about you, mister zombie expert? Care to join us?"

Shawn tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Eh, sorry. I'm going to have to go with no. I'm more of a solo guy, but I wouldn't be against helping you out if you need it." His answer complete, he walked over to start digging through the wreckage.

When Shawn had left them alone, Sammy gazed up at Jasmine in confusion. "Why'd you ask him to join our alliance?"

"I thought it wouldn't hurt to try," said Jasmine. She briefly glanced Shawn's way, and then leaned down closer to Sammy to whisper, "besides, not only is the guy a wilderness expert like myself, he's kinda cute." Sammy blinked at that, and opened her mouth to press the topic, but the scene transitioned before she could get a word out.

* * *

Scarlett banged the small pickaxe against the destroyed cabin's roof, and after a few attempts without making any progress, she held it up to her eyes, scowling at it.

"Chris and his childish tomfoolery," the genius redhead grumbled, clenching the pickaxe and throwing it away from the wreckage.

"Hey, Scarlett!"

Scarlett blinked at someone calling her name, and glanced down over the edge of the roof to see Topher standing there. "May I be of assistance?"

"Yeah, have you found any other shirts that look exactly like the one I'm wearing right now?" Topher inquired, tugging at his shirt for emphasis.

"…You have copies of the same outfit?" Scarlett clarified, giving Topher a strange look.

"Well, yeah! All of the greatest TV stars have a signature look," Topher reasoned. "I mean, Chris usually wears the same shirt layered over the white long-sleeve with the khakis and the gray shoes, and he always wears that little pouch necklace of his." He raised a hand to his neck, feeling its bare skin as he glanced down at it. "I wonder what he keeps in that thing anyway…"

Scarlett rolled her eyes at Topher's distracted thinking. "I regret to inform you that I have not seen any of your shirts. If you want them, find them yourself."

Topher stared flatly at her, lowering his hand from his neck. "Wow, harsh way of saying you haven't found any." Deciding the conversation was over, Topher walked onward.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I'm in the merge!" Topher cheered, raising both fists in the outhouse. He brought them down as he ecstatically looked down the barrel of the camera. "If that doesn't put me into consideration for being the next host of Total Drama, then it should at least put me into consideration for competing in another season!"

* * *

Shawn grunted with effort, trying to pull a blanket out from under the wreckage.

"Need some help?" inquired Beardo, walking over to Shawn.

Shawn answered between grunts, "Would definitely… appreciate it…"

Beardo wrapped his arms around Shawn's middle, and tugged him off his feet, both of them pulling at the blanket. They both gave it a few seconds of effort before Shawn spoke up again.

"Stop, stop! I think if we pull any harder, it'll tear."

Beardo complied with his request, and stopped pulling, setting Shawn back on his feet.

"I guess that's one thing we won't be able to salvage," Beardo commented, looking at it and then the concrete block. "Man, I can't believe I'm still here. I wasn't even sure I'd last past the first ceremony."

"Me neither," agreed Shawn, "I thought people would find my warnings about the zombie apocalypse annoying, and vote me off early."

Beardo scratched his afro absentmindedly. "Nah, for how much you go on about that stuff, you definitely have the skills we needed around." He frowned, "unlike me, I didn't even do very much. I just stayed in the background, hoping no one would pay enough attention to me to vote me off."

Shawn smiled at him. "Hey, don't sell yourself too short. You've had skills we needed around too, like your sounds helped us get the yeti, and you freed us from the gophers."

"Um, thanks? Still don't feel like I did very much, though."

"Well, now you're going to," Shawn declared, lifting up his hands. "We're in the merge now. We're all on the front lines; nobody can hide in the background anymore, even if they're flying solo like us."

Beardo sighed, "I guess so."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"It's nerve-wracking to be in the merge," Beardo confessed, twiddling his thumbs as he sat in the outhouse. "I can't stand back and make sure I don't do anything to make myself a target, at least not in the same sense as before. If I somehow make it through the merge without getting voted off, I'll surprise myself."

* * *

"Challenge time!" Chris announced as the final six gathered in front of the mess hall. Next to Chris stood the monitor he used in the previous episode on the beach. "Today, it's all about grabbing 'em and tagging 'em. And to show you how it's done, I give you Total Drama's favorite juvenile delinquent- Duncan!"

Chef rolled a hand-truck up to the campers. On the hand-truck was Duncan, tied up by rope with a mask covering up his mouth.

"Duncan owes me some camera time for skipping out on Total Drama World Tour, so I saved an extra painful challenge demo just for him," elaborated Chris.

"Eat dirt, McLean!" Duncan snapped through the mask.

Cheekily, Chris walked over and pointed his finger in Duncan's face. "No, that's your job!" As he continued to explain the challenge, the monitor came to life and showed the interior of the mess hall. "First up, the Smash and Grab! Hidden somewhere in the mess hall kitchen are six keys to Chef's prized collection of vintage go-karts. Some drive like well-oiled machines, others not so much."

"Chris," Chef interrupted, "don't let these clowns drive my karts! They're going to smash 'em!"

Chris nodded, "Yes, and car crashes equal ratings! Demo time, Duncan! Chef, let this perp out on a day pass."

Still rather miffed at Chris, Chef untied Duncan's rope restraints. The moment he did, however, Duncan pulled the mask off his face and ran off, shouting, "Later, losers!" His cackle grew faint as he gathered more distance from the host and the campers.

Uttering a noise of surprise, Chris folded his arms over his chest. "Should've seen that coming." Chef bobbed his head in agreement.

Standing beside her friend, Jasmine smiled down at Sammy. "Are you ready to kick this game up a notch?"

"So ready!" Sammy grinned back.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"I honestly thought I wasn't going to see the merge when the show started," Sammy confessed, placing a hand over her heart. "I was sure Amy was going to make sure I got sent home long before that happened, but Jasmine made it go the other way around. I'm so happy I met Jasmine, and that we became friends. Now we're both in the merge, and Jasmine's even got a crush on one of the boys. I really have to find a way to thank her for everything, and maybe this challenge will help me find a way to do that."

* * *

Lined up in front of the mess hall, the campers got into starting positions as Chris, now standing on the mess hall porch, raised his hand. "Players, commence smashing and/or grabbing now!" He swung his hand down, and a white flash transitioned the scene.

Inside the kitchen, Beardo ran up to a shelf next to the walk-in freezer, and picked up a jar that was sitting on it.

"Key, key, key," Beardo chanted, unscrewing the lid and tipping the jar upside down. A mound of salt fell out, and plopped on the floor. "Nope, nothing but salt."

On the other side of the kitchen, Jasmine grabbed the handle to a cupboard, intending to pull it open.

"Isn't a cupboard a little too easy of a hiding place?" Sammy questioned, standing next to her alliance partner.

Jasmine shrugged with one arm. "Maybe, but it doesn't hurt to check." She pulled the cupboard open, and after a moment of staring inside, shook her head. "No key in there." When she closed the cupboard, her eyebrows shot up when she saw a mutant roach sitting on her outstretched arm. She only had a brief second before it leaped at her face. Sammy yelped in fright for her friend.

Topher was on his knees, searching under the table in the middle of the room. He had one arm under the tablecloth as he tried to feel around for a key. "If I find a key under here, I can call myself lucky on my first try!" He pulled his hand out from under, and held up a bag of peanuts. "Peanuts? I'm more of a popcorn guy myself, but eh, a snack is a snack." Shoving the bag down his shirt collar, he reached his arm under the table again.

Underneath the table, a roach with a hungry face sat on a pan as it shook some salt onto Topher's searching hand.

Topher continued to search until he heard a loud chomp, and cried out as he withdrew his arm, showing it to be bent out of shape from the roach biting it.

Kneeling down next to a shelf underneath the sink area, pots clanged as Shawn tossed them out left and right, looking inside for a key briefly before discarding each one. "We've only been at this for a few minutes, and we're getting nowhere," the conspiracy nut remarked to Beardo, who was searching a nearby cupboard next to a closet.

"It's a kitchen, man," reminded Beardo, glancing at Shawn as he lifted up a canister to look underneath it. "We'll run out of hiding places fast." He put the canister down, and picked up a small bag, opening it up. "If you're done with the cupboard down there, you could try the closet. I don't think anyone's touched that yet," he suggested with a point of his free hand's thumb.

"Good idea," Shawn agreed, standing up and opening the closet. As he peeked inside, he frowned. "There's nothing in here but mops." As if on cue, a roach flew out of it, and latched onto his face. Shawn let out a muffled scream, and flailed his arms in an attempt to get it off while Beardo watched on in horror.

Scarlett kneeled on the floor next to a mop bucket, eyeing the bucket with revulsion. "Not the most sanitary place to hide a key, but I suppose that's the point," she said, trying to look in closer. A roach leg poked out of the bucket, and stole her glasses from her face. "Hey, those happen to be prescribed eyewear, you little insect!" She snarled, and stuck her arms into the bucket.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"I can't see very far away without my glasses," Scarlett explained, wearing her glasses as she waved her hand in front of her face. "While I'm annoyed that I need them, they are necessary if I am to perform any task adequately. Without them, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a person and a robot duplicate."

* * *

Shawn continued his struggle with the roach on his face, and eventually managed to pull it off of him. Acting quickly, he stuffed the roach into a pot on the nearby stove, and slammed a pot lid on top. "That sucked," he sighed in relief.

"You think that sucked," Beardo began to say off to the side, prompting Shawn to look up from the pot. "I've resorted to looking through the trash." Beardo walked over, holding a stained, fly-ridden trash bag. He reached a hand in, and made a face as he rummaged around. "Oh, that's gross! And that's extra gross!"

Sammy pulled at the roach latched onto Jasmine's face, calling, "I've got it, I've got it!" With one final thrust, she managed to pry it off. "I got it!" She squealed with delight, happy to have helped out a friend. The roach whirled around in her hands, and hissed at her. Shrieking in fright, she immediately threw it away from her and Jasmine.

Unfortunately for Shawn, just when he had gotten rid of one roach, he got another one. He let out a scream as the second one began to attack his head, and tried to pull it off. "Don't bite the head, don't bite the head!"

Jasmine and Sammy panted heavily from their troubles, and Jasmine shared a tired look with Sammy. "Let's not open any more cupboards, and focus on surfaces, shall we?" suggested Jasmine. As Sammy nodded, Jasmine, being the taller of the two, raised her arm up to the top of the cupboard and felt around. "Hey, I think I found one!" Bringing her arm down, a small, silver key could be seen in her hand.

"Yay! Great job, Jasmine!" Sammy clapped for her friend.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"I'm not really surprised to be in the merge," Jasmine said, hunched over in the outhouse seat with one leg crossed over her lap. "I led my original team for up until I swapped to the Rats, and I like to think I'm a pretty strong competitor. Up until that roach started giving me trouble, I don't think I've had all that much of a hassle in getting this far." She smiled as another thought came to her. "I'm glad that Shawn and Sammy are still here. I've grown real fond of them both. Maybe together we can take the final three by storm."

* * *

Now standing up, Scarlett attacked the mop bucket with the mop that it was paired with, scowling. "Give me back those glasses!" The roach in the bucket popped out of the bucket, and coughed out a key into Scarlett's hand, causing her to blink surprisingly. "Oh, that's convenient." She then glared as the roach retreated back into the bucket. "My glasses…" she demanded in a scarily neutral tone. One of the roach's legs emerged and chucked the glasses at her face. She grunted in annoyed pain as they smacked her.

Standing by a trash can, Sammy had her arm in it up to her shoulder as she rummaged around in search of a key. A smile soon appeared on her face as she pulled her arm out, her hand holding a key. "Found one!"

The table in the middle of the kitchen shook as a scuffle occurred underneath. The roach that had been occupying the space under it bounced out, and Topher poked his head out from under the tablecloth, his hair messed up and one eye bruised. "Hah! Not so hungry now, are you?" He taunted, holding out his hand which now contained a key as well.

Still searching the garbage bag he found, Beardo smiled as he withdrew his hand. In his hand was a key, but it did not look like any of the others. "Cool, a gold key!"

The key was a bright gold color, and the camera zoomed in on it in Beardo's hand, displaying it with a yellow and orange background.

Admiring his key, Beardo had to blink to snap back to reality as Shawn stumbled by him, still prying at the roach on his head. "A gold key? Are you kidding me?!" Shawn incredulously asked, unwittingly crashing into the cupboard by the closet that Beardo had searched earlier. A few jars fell from the cupboard upon impact, and smashed to pieces on the floor. Somehow, as that happened, Shawn made his way back to the stove, and finally got the roach off, quickly stuffing it into the same pot he did with the first one. As he slammed the pot lid on it again, he stared at Beardo out of the corner of his eye. "What's this about a gold key?"

"Isn't it cool?" Beardo questioned with a smile, holding it up for Shawn to see. "I found it in the bag."

Shawn sighed, "Well, I'm happy you have a key, but I still don't have one." Something caught his eye, and he raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what's that?" He pointed, and Beardo followed his gaze.

Among the broken jar pieces on the floor by the cupboard was a bit of silver. "It's a key!" Beardo exclaimed upon recognition.

* * *

The scene flashed white, and Chris and Chef were shown walking outside, with Chef furiously marching after Chris.

"You let them trash my kitchen!" Chef exploded, throwing his arms out to his sides. "Chris, man, you have any idea how long that's going to take to clean up!" He angrily pointed at his boss and best friend.

Chris smiled in his usual, sadistic way. "Chef, buddy- brother from another mother! Relax, it's cool." He held up a mop, and thrust it into Chef's hands before continuing on his way. "See? I got you a new mop!"

As Chris walked onward, Chef stayed back and growled, snapping the mop in half.

* * *

The scene transitioned again, this time to a fenced in lot with a neon sign that looked like Chef's face.

"Say hello to challenge part deux!" Chris began as he and the campers were shown inside the lot. Each of the final six were holding a yellow, electronic pad in one hand, and a can of spray paint in their other. From left to right, Topher was holding a can of blue paint, Shawn had orange, Beardo had black, Jasmine had green, Sammy had pink, and Scarlett had purple. "Grand Chef Auto! You've each been given a can of spray paint and a GPS map of the island. Your mission?

"Race your go-karts around the island and be the first to graffiti tag three landmarks," the host continued to explain as Topher's GPS was shown with three blinking red dots on its screen. "The rock wall of Mount Looming Tragedy, the spooky tree in the haunted forest, and the tippy top of a giant totem pole!" Each location was shown as Chris introduced them, and then the attention returned back to Chris. "Oh, and the go-karts? You'll have to steal them from Chef!"

Chef, standing in front of his collection of go-karts, growled at the campers. Sammy swallowed hard at the thought of going up against him.

Chris finally said, "The first person to completely tag all three landmarks wins immunity, and they get to choose who will be eliminated."

Raising an eyebrow, Scarlett spoke up, "Doesn't immunity and the sole vote to select who will be eliminated seem redundant?"

Briefly glaring at the redhead, Chris snapped, "Shut it, Scarlett! Alright, and go!"

* * *

Moments later, the six stood across from Chef, the large man staring them all down.

"So, does anyone want to take first crack at Chef?" Topher asked, breaking the silence.

"I say we all rush him at the same time," suggested Jasmine, sharing a glance with Sammy. "He can't get all of us at once."

His frown deepening into a scowl as the background music grew tense, he muttered, "Nobody touches my stuff. Nobody." Raising one hand, he snapped his fingers.

As if on cue, dozens of laser squirrels popped up around the go-karts, chittering dangerously and causing the campers to gasp.

"Laser squirrels!" Shawn yelled, the camera zoomed in on the horrified expression on his face.

The squirrels started firing lasers from their eyes, and the campers started screaming in terror.

Off to the side, Chris laid in his lounge chair, smiling to the camera. "I love when Chef gets mad, don't you? Who will survive his wrath? Find out after the break right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

As the footage faded to black for commercial, the screams of the campers could still be heard.

* * *

When the show returned, the campers were shown running back and forth across the lot, dodging the lasers.

At one point, Shawn and Jasmine ran in the same direction, and ended up in a corner, where Chef approached them with a dark grin.

"Hehe, game over! You're coming with me!" He told the two survivalists with a gleeful chuckle. They stared at him with horrified expressions, not liking what that could possibly mean.

Eventually, the squirrels stopped firing, and bounded over to the campers, starting to attack them personally.

"Ah, they're in my hair!" Sammy cried, a bunch of squirrels covering her body. She grabbed at two that were clinging to her blond locks.

Scarlett stopped running, and took note of Sammy's situation. She smirked to herself. "If they're bothering you, then that means they're not bothering me, which leaves me an opening." She started running in the opposite direction she was originally running, passing Topher.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Topher yelped as a bunch of squirrels seemed to bite him all over. "Watch the hair! Hey, don't snack on me! Snack on these!" He reached into his shirt, and pulled out the bag of peanuts that he had found earlier in the kitchen. As he held it up, all the squirrels in the lot seemed to freeze, including the ones that were attacking Sammy. "Go get 'em!" He tossed the bag.

Chef had been guiding Jasmine and Shawn away when the peanut bag clocked him in the back of the head, and flopped over his head, landing in his outstretched hands.

"Peanuts? Nice!" Shawn briefly smiled before he, Jasmine, and Chef noticed the squirrels coming towards them. Letting out screams, the three began running away from the hairless rodents.

With the squirrels busy, Topher jumped into the first go-kart he saw. "Winner's circle, here I come!" Pressing his foot to the gas, he sped off with a shout of enthusiasm.

The camera shifted slightly to the right as Beardo hopped into a differently-colored go-kart, this one matching his gold key. "Not if I get there first!" He put the key in the ignition, and turned the vehicle on. He pressed the go pedal, only to find that he didn't accelerate when he did. "What the?" He looked down, and the camera zoomed out to show that the gold go-kart was missing its two front tires. "For real?!"

Chris walked over, chuckling, "For very real, and just so you know, no take-backs on the karts."

At that point, Scarlett arrived at the go-kart next to Beardo's. "Sometimes, it's best to have the same one as all the others. Good luck getting that to move," she remarked snidely before driving away.

"Sorry Beardo, gotta go!" Sammy called as she zoomed past Beardo in her own kart, making him gasp in surprise at falling behind yet another camper.

* * *

Elsewhere, Jasmine and Shawn appeared to be locked in a cell with Chef standing outside it.

Shawn gripped the bars of the cell, looking up at Chef. "You can't do this! Is this even allowed?"

"Yeah, I have claustrophobia, you know," Jasmine added, her voice starting to tremble near the end of her statement.

Chef smirked, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, "Tell that to your prison guard!"

Mentioned prison guard was Fang, who was chained to a post in a mud pit next to the cell. Fang snarled, trying to reach for the two imprisoned campers.

Shawn and Jasmine gasped in horror as Chef walked away, cackling to himself.

* * *

Sammy's icon on the GPS map blinked right next to the first landmark.

"First landmark, and I'm the first to tag it!" Shaking her can of spray paint, Sammy proceeded to paint a pink smiley face on the side of Mount Looming Tragedy. "This is amazing! I feel so alive!" She ran back to her go-kart passing Topher on the way.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Topher quipped, sliding up to the landmark. Shaking his can, he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "What to tag, what to tag…" Snapping his fingers as a thought came to him, he began to paint.

At that moment, Scarlett showed up in her go-kart. She jogged up to the landmark, shaking her can and proceeding to spray a purple pi sign. Moving to return to her kart, she briefly eyed Topher still painting. "Um, what're you doing?"

"Painting my tag," Topher replied, not looking away from his work.

"Yes, but you don't have to…" As Scarlett trailed off, gears in her mind churned, and then a small grin formed on her face. "You know what? Never mind." Turning away from him, Scarlett hurried back to her kart.

Topher stopped painting to look back in Scarlett's direction. "Huh?" When he saw that she was already gone, he shrugged, and continued painting.

* * *

Back at the lot, Beardo rolled two tires over to his kart. "Got to make this quick so I can catch up. Good thing this place had a lot of extra tires laying around." He put one on the axle further away from the camera, and quickly used a wrench to tighten bolts on to secure it. Then, he circled around, and did the same with the axle that was closer to the camera. Examining his work with a glance, Beardo grinned. "Perfect!"

* * *

Not too far away, Jasmine and Shawn were still trapped in the cell.

Jasmine hugged herself, her shoulders shaking. "I've got to get out. I don't do well in tight spaces for very long…"

Shawn patted her on the shoulder. "And we won't stay in here for very long. Look, I know how to pick locks. Just let me pick this, and then we'll be out."

As Jasmine shuddered, Shawn pulled his hand away from her shoulder, and reached into his vest for a small pin. He put it into the key hole of the bar door holding them prisoner, and started to jiggle it around.

* * *

Sammy squealed with delight as she returned to her go-kart, her smiley face tag now adorning the spooky tree from the haunted forest. "Two landmarks down, and I'm still in the lead!" She pressed the accelerator, and drove off just as Scarlett arrived.

"She is not going to ruin my merge strategy," Scarlett muttered darkly, getting out of her go-kart to approach the tree. As she prepared to paint her tag, the squid inhabiting the tree awoke, and snatched her up with its tentacle. "Hey, let me go!"

* * *

Shawn continued to pick the lock until he heard a definitive click. "Aha, there we go!" With a push of his arm, the cell door swung open. "Jasmine, look! We're free!"

"Got to get out!" Jasmine exclaimed frantically, bursting out of the cell with enough force to knock Shawn into the mud, and made a mad dash for the go-karts. She jumped into the first one she could find, and sped off.

Sputtering, Shawn propped himself up with his arms where he was face-down in the mud, scowling in Jasmine's direction. "An 'excuse me' would've been fine!" He heard a snarl next to him, and hesitantly turned to his right, coming face to face with Fang. He cringed, "Oh man…" Fang tried to take a bite out of him, but he rolled out of the way just in time. "Sorry, gotta run." Getting to his feet, he ran to the last remaining go-kart, and hopped in.

The go-kart roared to life, and then pathetically burst to just a few feet from where it started, and stalled.

Shawn sputtered, "Are you kidding me?!" A flash forward to a few minutes later had Shawn still in the lot, using a wrench to tune the go-kart's engine. "Okay, just twists here… readjust that…" He then picked up his GPS, and raised an eyebrow as he looked at the screen.

A video had popped up over the map, showing Chris, who was looking a bit odd. "Listen- up-," the host said in a rather choppy way, "three- landmarks- wasn't- tough- enough- so- I- added- a- fourth- landmark. It's- a- doozy- mountainside- right- in- the- center- of- the- island." A fourth dot appeared on the GPS map somewhat centered between the three other ones. "Now- get- tagging- and- don't- spare- the- paint. McLean out."

As the video ended in static, Chef was shown holding the old, rubber dummy of Chris being dead from season two's murder mystery challenge and a tape recorder.

As Chef pulled his finger off a button on the recorder, he eyed the camera with a scowl. "Nobody touches my stuff," he grunted, "Nobody!" He let out a maniacal cackle.

* * *

Still at Mount Looming Tragedy, Topher pulled his can away, smiling. "And done!" The camera zoomed out to show Topher, dressed in Chris' TDA tuxedo, winning a Gemmy award in front of a crowd in blue paint. "Yeah, everyone give a round of applause for that handsome devil."

At that point, Beardo arrived in his now-working golden go-kart. He got out of his go-kart, and approached Topher.

"Dude, your art is sick," Beardo commented, shaking his spray paint and tagging a black music note- an eighth note to be precise. "But all you needed to do is paint a star, or something." Once his tag was complete, he hurried back to his go-kart.

Topher looked between Beardo and his elaborate tag before palming his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, up atop a cliff, Sammy climbed the totem pole, the third landmark on Chris' list. Given he said 'the tippy top', that meant the campers had to make their tag at the top of it.

"Just two more and I win! My first win all by myself! That sounds so good!" Sammy happily thought out loud as she climbed.

Scarlett arrived at the base of the totem pole, and remarked, "Hate to burst your bubble, but you still have to beat me." She quickly found a gripping point, and began her ascent.

"I will beat you," Sammy replied, reaching the top of the pole and bringing out her spray can, "right after I tag these last two landmarks."

"Might want to save yourself first!" Scarlett quipped, throwing her own can up in Sammy's direction. The can slammed into the cheerleader's face, and forced her to release her grip on the pole and her can.

Sammy let out a scream, quickly catching herself on the outstretched wing of the totem. "Help!"

Scarlett climbed up past her on the other side. "I would, but I have a victory to secure first. Not sorry."

Sammy's eyes followed Scarlett's form, and the cheerleader asked, "What's going on with you? You lied to Sky, and tricked me into helping you vote her off. I thought you were nice."

Reaching the top, Scarlett retrieved her can from on top of the pole where it sat after bouncing off Sammy's face. "I wasn't being nice. I was being tolerant of everyone except Max," she continued to speak as she sprayed her pi symbol, "you really think I would draw so much attention to myself so early in the game?"

"Heather did it, and she got to the final three."

"Yes, and that turned out _so_ well for her," Scarlett sarcastically replied, descending back down to the ground. Smoothening out her skirt and sweater, she glanced up at Sammy. "Now, you can either save your pathetic life, or you can fall to your inevitable death and grant your sister's wish of being an only child. Your choice."

"I thought you were going to help me! You said you would!"

"As if I care for your life," Scarlett said, turning away and returning to her go-kart. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a challenge to win."

Sammy's eyes went wide with panic. "Wait! You can't just leave me here! Scarlett!" She cried out as Scarlett sped off.

* * *

Somewhere in the woods, Jasmine drove along. As she drove, she smelled sharply. "Something reeks. Hey, wait… I know that smell!" She whirled her head around back and forth.

"Yeehaw!" Shawn hollered, flying off an unseen ramp and landing slightly behind Jasmine. "Woo, this go-kart drives like a dream now!" He gave Jasmine a wave of his hand. "See you at the landmarks!" He pressed down on the accelerator, and he sped up, passing Jasmine.

Jasmine's mouth dropped open, the Outback girl wondering how he was going that fast.

* * *

Back at the totem pole, Sammy's grip started to slip. "Jasmine! Somebody, help!" Her fingers finally slipped, and she screamed for dear life as she fell to her death.

Before she could hit the ground, Beardo drove onto the scene, and his momentum absorbed Sammy's impact when she fell on the front of his go-kart. To Beardo's surprise, the action rocketed him out of his seat and up to the top of the totem pole.

"Whoa! Wasn't expecting that," Beardo blinked, getting a good look at his position on top of the pole before glancing down below. "Thanks, Samey!"

"Thank you for breaking my fall," Sammy replied, smiling and waving up at him. Her expression grew dark as she started going over to her go-kart, and Topher arrived at that moment. "Now I'm going to break Scarlett for leaving me like that."

Beardo finished spraying his tag, and glanced down. "What was that?"

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Since I'm shy, I don't talk to people a whole lot," Beardo stated in the outhouse. "I say a few words, or make a few noises, and that's it. Now more than ever, I feel like I'm seriously out of the loop with the other contestants in the merge." He shrugged, "I only know a bit about Shawn and Jasmine, but that's as far as I've got."

* * *

Later, Shawn and Jasmine had arrived to the third landmark. Having gotten there first, Shawn was already way up while Jasmine was just getting started.

Chef and Chris drove up in a jeep, and Chris stood. "And the winner of Grand Chef Auto is…" He trailed off when he noticed that hardly anybody was around. "Where is everyone?"

Shawn hopped down from the totem pole into his go-kart. "Going for that last landmark."

Jasmine came down a moment after him, adding, "Yeah, the fourth one you added. Remember?"

The two campers zoomed away, leaving Chris to scratch his head in confusion while Chef could only whistle innocently. "What last landmark?" He picked up his GPS map to see where everyone was, and gasped when he identified the location they were headed to. "Mount Chrismore?!" The host clenched a hand into a fist. "Duncan!"

"That Duncan is one bad dude," Chef said slyly, going along with Chris' line of thinking if it meant his own involvement was covered up.

Chris demandingly pointed his finger. "Drive! We have to terminate this challenge with extreme prejudice!"

Chef obliged by slamming his foot on the accelerator, and Chris fumbled into the cargo bed out of surprise at the rapid movement of the vehicle.

* * *

At the base of Mount Chrismore, Sammy arrived, getting out of her go-kart and looking around. "Wha? Where's Scarlett? She was way ahead of me."

"Right behind you." Scarlett's voice said off-screen.

Yelping, Sammy spun on her heel and saw Scarlett standing behind her. "Wha? How'd you?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you and the others are so gullible. Did you really believe that video?" She gestured to Mount Chrismore. "Do you really think Chris would willingly allow us to deface a monument of his face?"

Sammy glanced down at her feet, rubbing her left arm. "When you put it like that…" She shook her head, and curled her hands into fists. "That's not important! What's important is that you lied to Sky, and you manipulated me into helping you achieve your own selfish goals."

"Chris lies to all of us and manipulates us for his own purposes, like the mine for example. How is that any different?" Scarlett pointed out.

"Chris is the host, and we can't vote him off. I listened to you, Scarlett; to you and your plans for every challenge when Jasmine didn't have a better one, and to your advice when I wasn't sure who to vote for. I trusted you."

"And that was your own fault. Honestly, you're so dependent on everyone else that you can't even make your own decisions."

"I'm not dependent on everybody!" Sammy shouted, stomping her boot. "You think I'm dependent? I've done my homework AND Amy's for the past eight years by myself! Every project that Amy could choose her topic, I chose her topic when she was too lazy or uninterested to pick one herself. I've done everything Amy doesn't want to do, like chores, and you're calling me dependent? If anyone's dependent, it's Amy."

Beardo and Topher arrived, and saw the argument going on. "What's happening here? Some sort of cat fight?" Topher spoke up.

Sammy gestured to Scarlett. "Scarlett left me at the totem pole to die. She's the reason I fell in the first place. She lied to Sky, and manipulated me to accomplish her own game."

Topher got out of his go-kart, and walked over. "Um, you're surprised? That's the kind of game Total Drama is, and that's the kind of thing that brings in the ratings. If Total Drama had no lies and no manipulation, the show would've been over after season one."

"We can play a game without lying and using each other if we respect each other as human beings," Sammy said, "I've been used by Amy for years, and I'm done being used by her and anyone else for that matter."

Beardo looked between the three of them, and then held up his can of spray paint. "So no one's going to tag the last landmark? No? Okay, I guess I will." He walked past them, and made his way over to the monument.

Topher glanced at him. "Hey, wait! If anyone's going to tag Chris' monument, it's going to be me!" Taking out his paint, he jogged over.

Sammy and Scarlett watched them for a moment before returning their gaze to each other.

"I don't see why you're trying to out me to them. It's quite pointless. You want to know three reasons why? One, I'm superior to all three of you in this game combined. Two, I have a safety net should the merge not go my way, and three, I'll let you figure that one out for yourself." Scarlett reasoned with a flat tone and unimpressed expression.

Sammy appeared confused at Scarlett's explanation. "What are you talking about?"

Next to the monument, Beardo and Topher jockeyed for whoever got to tag the monument first, shoving at each other and trying to block each other like little kids trying to play keep away.

"I'm going to tag it!" "No, I am!" "Out of the way!"

Jasmine pulled up the ramp to the monument, and stood up with a groan. "Oh no, we're too late." She glanced to the side, and raised an eyebrow when she noticed a distinct lack of conspiracy nut next to her. "Shawn?"

A honking noise caught the attention of the arguing Sammy and Scarlett, the fighting Beardo and Topher, and the lone Jasmine. Up another, higher ramp came Shawn on his go-kart.

"I don't know how I got up here, but I'll take it!" Shawn grinned as he flew off the ramp. His go-kart sailed through the air, and he jumped from the go-kart.

Down below, Beardo and Topher dove for cover as the go-kart came crashing down in their direction, and bounced once, colliding with something off-screen.

Shawn, on the other hand, grabbed a grip on one of the monument's eyes. With a grin, he produced his paint, and sprayed a giant 'Z' on it before letting go and dropping down to the ground.

"My face!" Chris cried, heralding his and Chef's arrival. He stood up in the jeep in outrage. "My beautiful fifty-foot concrete face!" The host then slapped Chef, who was holding a soft drink. "Did you have to stop at the drive-thru?"

Chef taking a sip of his drink was enough answer.

"So, Chris?" Shawn strode up to the jeep. "Do I get that one vote?"

Chris stepped out of jeep along with Chef, holding his hand out in front of Shawn. "No, no vote for you."

"Huh?!"

"You fell for an obvious prank by Duncan," Chris explained as he and Chef walked over to the vandalized landmark.

"Sorry, bro!" Duncan's voice called out, stopping the two men in their tracks with horrified looks.

Duncan poked out from behind some nearby rocks. "That wasn't me." He held up a remote, and a button.

The monument exploded into a shower of debris, leaving the bottom half of its face.

"Now that? That was me," Duncan proclaimed before laughing.

Chef began to laugh as well while Chris stared in shock at his once-lookalike monument. When the host noticed Chef pumping a fist in support of Duncan's prank, he glared at his assistant, forcing the bulkier man to stop and grumble quietly.

"Yes!" A nearby shout caught Chris and Chef's attention, and they looked in the direction it came from.

Beardo stood next to Topher, shaking his head as Topher finished spray painting a replica of his face.

"Chris might not have a monument of his face anymore, but I have a painting of mine!" Topher boasted.

* * *

A flash transitioned the scene to the elimination ceremony that night, the bonfire a blaze and Chef holding the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom in a pair of tongs.

"The real final landmark was the totem pole," Chris explained, "so immunity and today's sole vote goes to the first person who completely tagged it… Scarlett!"

Scarlett smirked as Sammy gasped in shock. Shawn glared in contempt, feeling his victory had been stolen. "Naturally," she remarked, confidently crossing her arms.

"Scarlett, eliminate the player of your choice!" Chris declared, making a slicing motion at his neck. Raising a hand to his mouth, he stage-whispered, "Choose Shawn or Topher."

"Hey!" Shawn and Topher protested in unison.

Scarlett stood from her seat, and adjusted her glasses on her face. "Well, seeing as I had a plan for the merge when it came, it was easy for me to make my choice." Tucking her arms behind her back, she glanced at her intended target. "Jasmine, you're eliminated."

"What?!" Jasmine, Shawn, and Sammy all exclaimed at once.

Topher glanced over at Jasmine, thoroughly surprised. "Whoa…" Next to him, Beardo's jaw dropped, the human soundboard mimicking the sound of dynamite exploding.

"This is how you treat me after all those challenges we did together, leading our team to victory?" Jasmine rose to her feet, staring Scarlett in the eye.

Scarlett shrugged. "I could care less about our 'team'. You're a threat to my game, and I'm simply removing you from it. It's that simple of logic."

The eliminated girl glared at her, only to be startled by someone hugging her waist. She looked down, and saw Sammy.

"Jasmine, I'm so sorry! I almost won until she knocked me down the pole. If I had just been a little quicker…" The cheerleader apologized tearfully.

"Hey, it's okay." Jasmine patted her on the back. "What's done is done."

Sammy gazed up at her friend. "You've done so much for me. Becoming my friend, helping get rid of Amy, and lots more. I promise I'll win for you and for myself."

Touched by Sammy's words, Jasmine hugged back. "Thanks, and stay strong, will ya? You'll need to be strong if you're going to win."

Sammy nodded. "I'll try."

"Jasmine," Chris spoke, forcing the girls to break the hug, "the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom is yours!"

Chef held the tongs holding the marshmallow towards Jasmine. Sammy ducked behind Jasmine, both girls flinching at the glowing treat.

* * *

A flash cut had Chris, Chef, and Jasmine now down at the Hurl of Shame. Being so tall, Jasmine's legs awkwardly hung over the lip of the bucket. Chef stood at the lever while Chris stood next to the bucket.

Chris smiled, "Well, Jasmine, it's been nice knowing ya."

At that point, Shawn rushed up. "Hey, uh, I just want to say that I was kinda mad how you shoved me into the mud earlier, but since you have claustrophobia and you're kinda eliminated, I'm not really that mad."

"Thanks for telling me that, you're a real stand-up guy," Jasmine replied, smiling at him. "Even if you do smell and go on tangents about zombies." She chuckled, and then continued, "Do me a favor? Keep an eye on Sammy, will you?"

Shawn held up his hand as if he was swearing an oath. "You have my word."

"Thank-aaah!" Jasmine's voice trailed off as Chef flung her into the night sky.

Chris chuckled, noticing the concerned frown on Shawn's face. "Love hurts, don't it?"

Shawn glanced at him, sputtering. "Love? What're you talking about?!"

"Oh nothing," Chris shrugged, turning his attention to the camera, "Who will be the next loser hurled? What humiliating challenges lie in store? Where will I build my next monument to me? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Jasmine- 6th**

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **My apologies to any Jasmine fans. It was all part of Scarlett's plan. Jasmine is a very strong player, and anyone can see that, which is why Scarlett had to get rid of her.**

 **This challenge is one of my favorites in Revenge of the Island, along with Ice Ice Baby, A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste, and Up, Up, and Away in my Pitiful Balloon. This was very fun to write. Jasmine and Shawn's scenes after getting captured by Chef were originally going to occur differently, such as Jasmine pulling the bars apart like Lightning did, and Jasmine was originally the one to fall into Fang's mud pit with Shawn being just a bit too enthusiastic in getting free. This would've made Jasmine mad like the PI episode 5 challenge did in canon. After the roles changed, Shawn was going to be mad at her for knocking him into the mud and into Fang's range, but since she has claustrophobia, I found it a bit out-of-character for him, so I toned it down.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	10. TDRI Episode 10

**SideshowJazz1:** Sammy standing in for Cameron? Hmm, maybe? So, you don't want Scarlett to win, and you also want to see Topher go? Interesting...

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Yeah, that's true. Everybody in the original cast has backstabbed somebody at one point or another, at least most of them that is. Interesting analysis of everyone left in Scarlett's path, and how they stack against her. I dunno if Topher's a regular moron, though. Topher's shown some skills of his own before.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **That British Guy:** Good to know.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, Scarlett better watch out for Sammy.

 **OmniPlanckInstant:** Yeah, Scarlett made a few mistakes. Let's see if they cause her some trouble. And yeah, Topher making a painting of himself at the first landmark might not have been the smartest move, but I needed Sammy and Scarlett alone for their confrontation, and it seemed like an in-character thing of him to do. Yeah, Shawn has skills. I like to think lock-picking and fixing a vehicle would be among skills a person would need for a zombie apocalypse scenario. Don't worry, considering I plan on doing AS and PI as well, there's plenty of chapters (or episodes, rather) to come.

 **Guest:** Interesting thoughts. Keep in mind I already have the elimination order set up, though.

With reviews answered, time for the final five to take to the skies!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise.

Episode 10- Up, Up, and Away in my Pitiful Balloon

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris opened with his usual narration, "the players went on a smash-and-grab graffiti race!" The clips from the previous episode showed the remaining contestants doing various parts of the challenge. "Jasmine and Shawn experienced a lock-up, Samey nearly fell to her death thanks to Scarlett, and Beardo and Topher stayed in the middle of the pack.

"Scarlett won the challenge," the host continued as clips of the elimination ceremony began to play, "and despite Sammy confronting her over recent lies and betrayals, she stuck to her guns and voted off Jasmine with her sole vote."

The footage flashed to the current scene which included Chris supervising two interns cleaning the Hurl of Shame. "Missed a spot," he cheekily teased at the one sitting in the catapult's bucket. He then turned his attention to the camera filming them. "We're down to five competitors, and you'll never guess who's next to ride the Hurl of Shame!" He sent a hand signal to Chef, who was at the catapult's lever, and the burly man grinned as he cranked the lever.

The female intern in the bucket cleaning let out a Lindsay-like scream as she flew into the daylight sky.

"Hehe, told ya," Chris chuckled, only for the male intern that had been helping clean to walk away with a frown. "What? Catapults are expensive. I need to get my money's worth." Shrugging, he said, "But someone else will be flung before the day is over. Find out who right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue intro)

* * *

The scene faded in from the intro, showing Shawn kneeling in the woods, tinkering with something the camera couldn't see.

The viewpoint changed, and Shawn's hands could be seen laying what looked like a lasso on the ground.

"There, that's the last of… fifty zombie traps set up around camp," he declared wiping sweat from his brow. "While being on an island helps, it doesn't hurt to have a second line of defense."

A large shadow loomed over him, and his eyes widened.

"And maybe just in time too! That might be the government coming to tell us that the zombie apocalypse has begun!" Jumping to his feet, he dashed in the direction the shadow was going.

The other four remaining contestants were standing in front of the destroyed cabin, which still had the giant block of concrete sitting on top of the wreckage. As Shawn joined the group, the camera zoomed out to show the moving shadow over Shawn was actually a zeppelin that seemed to bear Chris' McLean-brand logo at the nose. Beardo, Sammy, and Topher all oohed in terrified awe.

"Okay, this might be cause for alarm," Shawn began to say as he joined them, "the government's probably here to- ah!" His train of thought thoroughly halted when an anchor came crashing down on his foot.

While she enjoyed Shawn's pain, Scarlett walked past him, tapping her chin as she looked up at the aircraft. "A zeppelin? Not my first choice of aircraft considering its slow speed- ugh!" Much like the anchor interrupting Shawn, a ramp came down on Scarlett.

"Wrong, Scarlett! It's the McLean Mobile Air Command Center, where I will recline in luxury while you compete in today's challenge- an aerial obstacle course!" Chris corrected from the door of the zeppelin, disembarking with Chef while Scarlett groaned underneath the ramp, the redhead's feet sticking out from underneath.

Topher beamed as Beardo and Sammy helped Shawn with the anchor, "An aerial challenge? Awesome! I don't think the show's done one like that before. The ratings are going to be sky high!"

"You got that right, Tophe!" Chris pointed at him with double finger guns. "And they're going to be even more sky high with today's guest! Here to demonstrate, please put your hands together for Total Drama classic competitor, Heather!"

Heather stepped into the doorway, her hair back to its original season one length and a scowl on her face.

Beardo, Sammy, and Shawn all murmured in shock, quite intimidated by the former player. Topher, on the other hand, looked just about as ecstatic as Chris was.

Scarlett groaned more as Heather descended the ramp.

"Wow, you're the Heather?" Sammy spoke up, her fear giving way to pleasant surprise. "I just mentioned you to Scarlett the other day, but I had no idea you'd actually show up!"

Heather rolled her eyes at the good twin's comment. "Sorry, I have this policy of not talking to losers."

"Just because we're newer to the game than you, doesn't mean we're automatically losers," Sammy replied, glaring at Heather for the rude response.

Interrupting the conversation, Chris explained, "Heather will now demonstrate the aerial challenge while wearing a jetpack."

Heather grunted as Chef dropped Chris' regular jetpack onto her shoulders, and he pressed a button on a remote. Heather's face morphed into an expression of horror when the jetpack ignited, and she took off into the air. The campers watched with concern as Heather went on to demonstrate, Scarlett joining them with an air of irritation as she rubbed her sore head.

The former contestant screamed as she haphazardly flew through several rings of fire before circling back towards the zeppelin. Her screams only got louder when the jetpack sputtered, and she began to spiral out of control.

"Everyone just be cool," Chris calmly addressed the campers still watching Heather, "There's a parachute built into it."

The campers proceeded to wince as Heather dove face first into the ground a few feet in front of them, and the parachute popped out only after she had crashed.

The host chuckled, "Best challenge ever!"

The other campers watched as Beardo hesitantly pulled the parachute up, and looked underneath. "She's not dead or anything, but this challenge just seems really unsafe," Beardo said, knowing what the others were thinking.

"No, it's totally unsafe!" Chris clarified with a laugh. He then raised a finger to add an extra point. "Did I mention you'll also be attacked by flying, mutant, fire-breathing goats?" He asked as casually as if one would ask what another was doing that weekend.

Shawn, Sammy, Scarlett, and Topher all gasped in shock. Beardo instead glared at Chris, stomping his foot.

"That's it!" The human soundboard exclaimed. "I've been quiet for most of this game, but I have to say something now! No way I'm doing that. Beardo is out, y'all!"

Chris smirked at Beardo's defiance. "Okay, but before you go, you can say goodbye to this!" Reaching down beside him, the host held up the briefcase holding the million dollars, and opened it, showing off stacks of money inside. "The ultimate Total Drama prize- one million dollars!" A breeze flew a few dollars out of the briefcase. "Give or take."

Beardo popped over by Chris, looking at the money as if he had found the most perfect DJ-ing equipment in the world. "So much coin… alright, Beardo is in!"

"Count me in, too!" Sammy added, pointing at herself with her thumb. She sent a sideways scowl at Scarlett. "I need to make sure a certain liar doesn't win!"

"I highly doubt your ability to emerge victorious over me," Scarlett responded, not even fazed by Sammy's proclamation. "Although, if you feel like risking your game just to get back at me, please do so. That'll make your defeat much more simple and satisfying."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Scarlett brings out the same anger in me that Amy does," Sammy said as she stood in the confessional outhouse instead of sitting like she usually does. "I don't like being mad, but Scarlett voted off my best friend and reminds me of my horrible sister. People like them need to be taken down a peg."

* * *

Handing the case to Chef, Chris continued to relay more instructions, "Now, to perform your aerial feats, you'll first have to construct your very own flying machines!"

Topher leaned over to Scarlett conspiratorially. "Hey," he whispered, "you're smart. If I help you stay away from getting cornered at elimination, will you help me build my machine?"

"Build it yourself," Scarlett snapped in an equally quiet tone. "I work alone."

"For now," Topher smirked.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"This whole season, I've been wondering who our Heather, Courtney, or Alejandro is," Topher admitted, sitting with one leg propped up on the toilet seat beside him. "At first I thought it might've been Max, but he was kinda… Max. Part of me worried that we might've voted them off already, and the season would be boring. But after seeing Scarlett these last few eliminations, I've realized it must be her," he stated with a wide grin.

Putting his leg down from the seat, he faced the camera directly. "So, my plan is to keep her in the game just a little bit longer, to make her think she's safe until the end, but at the final three or four, I surprise her and become the cause of her elimination. I do that, and I instantly join the ranks of the Total Drama greats."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"I don't need Topher's help," Scarlett immediately said when the confessionals switched. "I have a plan, and if I stick to that, my victory is guaranteed. Though, it might benefit me to string him along for extra assurance."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"So I have to beat Scarlett in something I've never attempted before," Sammy summarized, rubbing her arm nervously. "You know what? That's okay. I nearly did it the other day, and I can do it again."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

Shawn shrugged as his confessional began. "So, it wasn't the government coming to warn us about the zombie apocalypse, but the challenge is just as important. I need to-"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"-win this challenge-" Topher stated while pounding a fist down into an outstretched palm.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"-kick Scarlett's butt-" Sammy declared, curling her hands into fists as a determined expression formed on her face.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"-outwit the others-" Scarlett added simply with a knowing eyebrow raised.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"-and win that million!" Beardo concluded his statement with a sigh, and then slapped his hand to his forehead. "What have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

After the final bit of static from the rapid confessionals disappeared, the scene had changed to an area with many huge piles of random junk. The camera panned over the piles until Chris and the contestants were found standing amongst them. Chris was wearing yellow rubber gloves, and a fly-ridden trash bag sat at his feet.

"Welcome to your one-stop shop for flying machine parts- the dump!" Chris announced as the camera zoomed in on him. "Revolting," he commented as he picked up the bag and held it out, "and reasonably priced." While the camera panned over the grossed-out faces of the contestants, Chris explained, "Each player will pick a card representing their mode of flight. Pick 'em like your nose, losers!" The host then gagged as he opened the bag.

Shawn stepped forward first, and reached into the bag. He sloshed his arm around in whatever was inside before pulling out a card. The card had a picture of a helicopter on it. "A helicopter? Well, there's worse flight transportation for escaping the zombie apocalypse."

As Shawn moved forward, Scarlett approached the bag next, and wrinkled her nose as she reached for a card. Her card had the picture of a plane. "A plane? Time-consuming, but not out of my area of knowledge."

Beardo put his hand into the bag next, and pulled out a card with a picture of a rocket. "A rocket? How about dang near impossible?"

"I can't imagine getting something worse than a rocket," Sammy thought out loud as she reached for a card next. When she pulled her hand out, her card had a hot-air balloon. "A hot-air balloon? Oh em gee, that is better than a rocket. Sorry, Beardo." She added sympathetically as she walked past Chris.

Topher was last in line. He reached into the bag, and pulled out his card. On the card was a picture of a bird. "A bird? Fitting for someone who's going to soar over all the others," he quipped pleasantly before joining the others.

With all the players having their cards, Chris dropped the bag to address them. "The first camper to show me their finished flying machine wins an advantage- a McLean-brand smoke machine!" He gestured to Chef nearby, holding said advantage. "Use it as a smokescreen, smoke bees out of your attic, or just create spooky ambiance," he advertised as Chef showed off the item. "Check it!"

Chef pressed a button on top of the machine, and white smoke blew out of the machine, causing the contestants to cough as it blew right in their faces.

"Sweet, right?" Chris asked, not caring how they were reacting to the smoke. "The first to finish their contraption wins that smoky bad boy. Okay, campers, prepare to get your dump on… now!"

At the signal, the contestants immediately split up to go separate ways.

Jogging alongside Sammy after going off to the camera's left, Shawn spoke up, "So, Jasmine told me to help you out if you need it. Need some help? I know my way around building stuff."

"Um, what did you have in mind?" Sammy asked, glancing at him.

"You're building a hot-air balloon, right? Try to find something you can stand or sit in, some really big sheets, and something to burn hot air into the sheets."

Sammy blinked at him. "Oh! Is that all a hot-air balloon needs? Thanks, Shawn! That's really helpful."

Shawn smiled at her. "Just doing what Jasmine asked."

Beardo then jogged up behind them. "Hey, either of you guys know how to build a rocket?"

* * *

Bent over at the waist, Topher rummaged through an old oil drum, tossing parts left and right. Soon after throwing out the last part, he pulled his upper body out of the drum.

"Ugh, how am I going to build a bird?" The aspiring TV host lamented.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you need to build a bird," Scarlett spoke up, causing Topher to look to his right, the camera zooming out to show Scarlett walking past with her card in hand. "I believe you're supposed to build wings. That's how birds fly, after all."

Topher nodded in realization, "Oh… good point. Thanks!"

"Of course," Scarlett waved her hand behind her as she focused on her card in her other. "Hm… a plane… I'll need a cockpit, a propeller, an engine, and a set of wings for myself." Looking up from her card, she saw a purple couch at the base of a pile as a triumphant jingle played. "I suppose I found my cockpit." She looked around, and saw some steel plates at the base of another pile as the jingle played a second time. "I suppose I found my wings as well." Scanning her eyes around the junkyard once more, she spotted a propeller at the base of another pile as the jingle played again. "My propeller? Finding three out of the four things I require in the same moment is highly coincidental."

* * *

The scene flash-transitioned to Beardo walking amongst the junk, groaning. "Build a rocket? How's a guy supposed to do that in one afternoon? This ain't a cartoon." In the midst of his distracted thoughts, he bumped face first into something metal. "Ow! What the?" He winced, rubbing his forehead, and then blinked as he realized what he had just walked into.

Beardo had walked right into a jet engine.

Staring with wide-eyes, Beardo's jaw dropped, an anchor-dropping sound coming out of it.

* * *

Topher laid down a set of wings that looked eerily like the wings from Gwen's bike from the season one bike race on an abandoned desk. "Okay, I've got wings. Now the question is how do I wear them?" Tapping his chin thoughtfully, he looked down at the wings. "Maybe I should see if I can find a harness of some kind…" Deciding to try that, he walked away from his workspace, still tapping his chin.

As Topher walked across the screen in search of something to help him wear his wings, Sammy and Shawn were hard at work building their flying machines in the background. Once Topher had passed, the camera zoomed in on the two.

Sammy attempted to tie a burner to a wheelchair as Shawn tugged what looked like Chef's old motorcycle into the workspace. Finally reaching the area, Shawn let out a loud exhale of relief as he dropped the old bike to the ground.

Sammy looked up, raising an eyebrow. "What're you doing?"

"Building a helicopter," Shawn answered while glancing at her. The conspiracy nut pointed to the motorcycle. "I wasn't able to find a cockpit for a regular helicopter, so I thought I could use this and put the blades underneath instead. I saw a fan on my way back that looked big enough for this to sit on."

"Oh, that sounds like it could work, I guess." Sammy took her hands away from the burner, and smiled when she saw it stayed where it was underneath all the ropes and knots. "There, that should hold."

Shawn smirked, "Hey, that looks really good. Just get a big enough thing of fabric for a balloon, and you'll be good to go."

"You think so? I hope so. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I win the advantage and Scarlett's a step closer to losing." The cheerleader twin looked around. "What would make a good balloon?"

"Why are you so suddenly against Scarlett?" Shawn asked as she walked past him to search a junk pile next to his work area. "I get that she eliminated Jasmine, and that you two were friends. I'm mad too, but this still seems a bit weird."

Sammy sighed, throwing one thing to the side as she looked. "You had to be there. Scarlett tricked me into helping her vote off Sky, and then she left me hanging at that totem pole… People like Scarlett shouldn't win competitions like this. Yet, the last two ceremonies have gone her way. With how many people are left, I'm worried what that means for the rest of us, especially with her mentioning a safety net- whatever that means."

"Safety net?" Shawn repeated, his brow furrowing.

"Yeah," the cheerleader twin looked up at him, "when I confronted her at Mount Chrismore the other day, she mentioned that she had a safety net in case the merge wasn't going like she planned. I still don't understand what she meant by that, though."

Shawn stared at her for a moment before smacking his forehead, gnashing his teeth in the process. "Seriously?! You didn't know what she was talking about?"

"Um, no?"

Shawn frowned at her, pulling his hand away from his face. "She was clearly talking about the invincibility statue! If she wasn't immune from the vote and most of the votes were for her, she could pull that thing out and save herself. That's what she meant by having a safety net."

Sammy gasped, turning to him. "You don't think she really has it, do you?"

"I do," Shawn nodded, starting to pace. "Chris said two challenges ago that the statue was found, so we can assume that nobody found it before then because he made that announcement otherwise he would've announced it was found sooner. Your team lost two challenges ago, right? Did anybody use the statue?"

"No," Sammy shook her head, watching him pace back and forth. "And nobody used it at the last ceremony either, we were all there."

"Right, which means that the statue should still be in play. And considering what she told you, we can only assume that she's the statue's holder."

"Okay, but there's one other thing we have to figure out. Who's her next target? She obviously set up the last two eliminations, so what's her next move?" Sammy pointed out.

Shawn tapped his chin. "Scarlett's smart, so there has to be a pattern. What did Sky and Jasmine have in common?"

Sammy thought for a moment, and then gasped once more. "When she convinced me to vote for Sky!"

* * *

 _"Total Drama is more of a physical game than a mental one," Scarlett reasoned, tapping the side of her head for emphasis. "Our own games are better off if we eliminate the strong ones before they can do the same to us. Just something I'd think about." Her final word on the subject said, Scarlett began to wade into the swamp._

* * *

Sammy exchanged wide-eyed glances of realization with Shawn as the flashback ended. "She's going after…"

"Me," Shawn concluded with a gulp.

* * *

Scarlett growled as pounded the propeller into place on the front of the couch with a wooden mallet she had found lying around. "You better stay put," she sneered at the part before putting down the mallet and climbing up into her makeshift cockpit, closing the cushion that acted as a door. She thrust a lever on the engine that had been put in place of a cushion, and the makeshift plane sputtered to life as the propeller began to spin. "Success!" The genius redhead grinned, and then looked over the side of her contraption. "Going to need wheels to help lift off, though."

* * *

Beardo connected some wires and then used a wrench to tighten some bolts. "I really hope that holds…" he murmured to himself, climbing out of the jet engine's internal workings. A lounge chair and a joystick were now fastened to the top of the jet engine, and he took a seat in the chair. Grabbing hold of the joystick, he pressed the button on top.

The jet engine whirred to life, turbine spinning. It seemed to build up power until the sound petered out.

"Aw man, for real?" The human soundboard moaned.

* * *

At Topher's work area, he had attached the wings to an old parachute pack he found, and was fastening the harness of the pack on.

"Sweet," he smiled as he slipped his arms through the grips of the wings. "Now to fly to Chris and get that advantage!" Getting a running start as he flapped his wings, he jumped up, flapped his wings several times only to crash to the ground. "Ow!"

* * *

A flash fast-forwarded to Sammy and Shawn's work area. The camera panned from the top of Sammy's inflated makeshift hot-air balloon down to the ground where she and Shawn stood. Beside Shawn was the motorcycle he had found on top of a large fan with ropes laying around the base.

"That looks great! I'm surprised you found enough material for the balloon," Shawn said.

"I know, lucky find." Sammy agreed, and then clambered onto her flying contraption. "Now to make sure Scarlett doesn't get that advantage. Mind untethering me?"

Shawn bobbed his head. "Sure thing!" Kneeling down next to the post Sammy's balloon was tethered to, he pulled the rope around the post, releasing it. No longer tied to the ground, Sammy's balloon began to rise.

"It's working! I did it!" Sammy cheered, glancing down at Shawn below. With a grin, she pulled at the control of her balloon, and navigated it in a certain direction.

Down on the ground, Chris smiled as Sammy lowered her balloon in his vicinity.

"Is this okay?" She asked Chris politely.

Chris nodded appraisingly. "Yep, that's a hot-air balloon." Raising a megaphone in his hand, he announced, "We have a winner! Sammy gets first, and gets a smoke machine!"

Various sounds of protest piped up from all over the junkyard.

Sammy pumped her fists. "Woohoo! I did it!" In her excitement, she lost balance on her seat, and fell out, her foot catching the leg rest. She ended up hanging from her contraption upside down, nearly face to face with Chris. Noticing gravity was starting to overturn her cheerleading skirt, she yelped, and quickly corrected it with her hands. "Don't look!" She pleaded with Chris.

Chuckling, Chris turned to the camera. "Who will fly high? Who will crash and burn?"

From far off a rocket engine's roar could be heard, along with the sounds of Beardo's screams, before both cut off by a loud crash.

"Literally," Chris continued, rather pleased with Beardo's unfortunate accident, "And how many Gemmies will I win for this episode? Find out when we return on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

"Um, can someone help me?" Sammy requested as the show faded to commercial.

* * *

When the show faded back in, the contestants were lined up and apparently ready with their flying machines. Topher was ready on the far end with his pack of wings, Scarlett to his left (the camera's right) with her couch-plane, Sammy to her left with her hot-air balloon once again tethered to a post in the ground, Shawn to her left with his motorcycle helicopter, and Beardo on the end with his jet engine.

Scarlett finished final inspections of her plane before walking over to where Sammy stood, holding her newly won advantage of a smoke machine.

"So, you won an advantage," Scarlett said as she approached Sammy, an unimpressed expression on her face. Sammy frowned at her tone. "It doesn't matter. You may have built your machine the quickest, but it'll still be the slowest in the sky."

"Don't talk like you already know the results of the challenge, Scarlett," Sammy snapped.

Scarlett held up a hand. "I'm just saying that your aircraft was meant for ascending and descending, not flying horizontally through rings, which we saw was the challenge earlier. With how inferior you are to me, I fail to see how you can possibly succeed over me in this challenge."

Glaring at Scarlett, Sammy said no more words, and instead held up her smoke machine, pressing the button on it to release smoke right into Scarlett's face. Scarlett began to cough and hack, raising her sleeve to her mouth and backing away from Sammy.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

Standing in the outhouse, Sammy let out a noise of displeasure as she clenched her hands into fists. "She sounds so much like my sister… they could be a set of pom-poms!"

* * *

When the static cleared, the scene was focused on the rings that Heather had previously flown through, Chris' zeppelin flying in the background.

"Players, prepare to be challenged in the obstacle course of doom!" Chris announced from the zeppelin via megaphone.

Up in the zeppelin, Chris and Chef chuckled, looking out the window of the zeppelin's gondola at the course. Heather stood behind them, disinterested at the challenge at hand. When she looked over her shoulder away from the window, she noticed the case holding the prize money sitting next to a pair of crates full of Gemmie awards.

Heather smirked darkly, her mind forming a plan.

Down on the ground, Beardo patted his rocket on the side right before Shawn hopped down from his helicopter.

"We need to make sure Scarlett doesn't win today," Shawn told Beardo in a hushed voice, getting straight to the point. Beardo's eyebrows shot up as Shawn elaborated, "after that, we need to vote for her to flush out the invincibility statue. Samey and I are voting her off. Can you do the same?"

"Flush out the invincibility statue?" Beardo parroted, a shocked look in his eyes. "Are you sure she has it?"

Shawn nodded his head. "Positive. I know we haven't been the closest teammates since day one, but Samey and I could really use your help. You in?"

Beardo went silent, and looked up past Shawn. The viewpoint cut to Sammy and Scarlett, glaring at each other while standing by their respective contraptions. Past Scarlett, Topher gave his wings an experimental flap.

When the viewpoint switched back to him, Beardo reached out and grabbed Shawn's hand. "I'm in."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"This whole season, I've been standing back and avoiding the drama as much as I could," Beardo lamented, nervously tapping his fingers together before staring at the camera. "Now Shawn's asking me to help with a major game move? This might be just the thing I need to step in and finally get involved."

* * *

Chris continued to chuckle as he and Chef watched from the zeppelin. "Wow, looks like they really hate each other now," he mentioned in reference to Sammy and Scarlett. "Beardo and Topher could be a bit more involved, but I smell another Gemmie coming on."

He had no idea how accurate the phrase was in more ways than one. Heather snuck up behind the two men with one of Chris' awards in hand, and slammed it on the backs of their heads. The two men grunted in pain as the scene cut to outside the zeppelin.

Suddenly, the side door of the gondola opened, and Chris was sent falling out, followed by Chef.

"One Gemmie for you," Heather declared as she poked her head out the door, holding the award in one hand and the case in the other, "and one million for me." With her declaration, she slammed the door shut.

Both men screamed as they fell down towards the junkyard. From afar, the cameras recorded as Chris and Chef landed in the junkyard, letting out cries of 'Oof!' upon impact.

On the ground underneath Chef, Chris groaned, "I think I sprained my stubble…"

"Chris," Shawn spoke up as the camera zoomed out to show Shawn standing beside the two fallen men, "Heather's stealing your mobile air command center."

"Whatever," Chris responded passively, "got it at the air force garage sale."

"And my million dollars!" Scarlett added furiously, sliding over to the host and shoving Shawn over Chef.

"Whatever, not my million bucks."

Topher then walked over, interjecting, "And all your Gemmie awards~!"

That point seemed to snap Chris out of his passive behavior as he suddenly became outraged. "My Gemmies!" He roared, pulling himself out from underneath Chef and Shawn and taking an aggressive stance. "Cancel the obstacle course of doom! Your new challenge is to stop that zeppelin!"

Up on the blimp, Heather leaned out the side door, shouting, "Don't try to stop me! I've got gold statuettes, and I'm not afraid to use them!" Making good on her threat, she tossed two down.

"I've got you my preciouses!" Chris cried out, racing to catch them. He disappeared behind piles of junk, and two noises rang out, signaling that the awards had clocked him in the head.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I knew the moment Heather stepped off the blimp this morning that things were going to get interesting. I mean, Heather's ruthless. As if she's just going to make a visit to the island without trying to take the money," Topher pointed out before humming in thought. "I wonder if Chris would notice an award or two missing…"

* * *

Chris returned to the contestants, both awards in hand and a giant bruise on top of his disheveled head. "Get your flying machines airborne, and shoot down that zeppelin! Aim for the engine!" He said immediately upon return. As he explained what to do, Chef, also on his feet, returned with a basket full of blue eggs. "Here's your ammo- flying mutant, fire-breathing mountain goat eggs."

Scarlett fixed her glasses on her face. "According to my studies of animal biology, mountain goats are mammals. They don't lay eggs."

"They also don't breathe fire, unless they live here," Chris countered smugly, chuckling. "Thank you, toxic waste!"

The contestants sent each other strange glances.

"Whoever takes down Heather wins immunity. Oh, and look out for the flying mutant, fire-breathing mountain goats. They're super ticked for some reason." As Chris mentioned this warning, Chef whistled innocently when Chris looked at him.

* * *

A flash transitioned to a flashback of the mountain goats resting in their nests on a cliff when Chef rappelled down to them, and sounded an air horn. The noise frightened them, and they flew away, leaving their eggs unguarded.

Grinning, Chef threw away the horn, and picked up an egg.

* * *

When the scene returned to the present, Scarlett was seen climbing into her plane. "Even with the change in objective, Samey will still not reach the zeppelin before I do. This is going to be an easy win." Smirking, Scarlett pulled the lever of her engine, and her plane started up. The wheels on her plane started to roll forward, and as her aircraft began to pick up speed, it started to leave the ground.

Sitting in her balloon, Sammy tugged at her rope tether, pulling her close to the ground. "There's no way Scarlett's going to stop Heather before we do," she said as she got close enough to her tethering post to unhook her rope. Once the rope was free of the post, Sammy pulled at her burner's lever to rise higher in the air. "Shawn, come on!"

"Right behind you!" Shawn called back, hopping onto the seat of his helicopter. Revving the engine, his helicopter began to float as the engine roared to life.

The camera zoomed out as Sammy and Shawn's flying machines rose up over the junkyard, and started in the direction of the stolen zeppelin and Scarlett's plane.

Sitting on top of his rocket, Beardo jiggled his joystick while pressing the button on it. "Come on! Work, please work!"

After several failed attempts to start up, one final click of the button seemed to do the trick.

The jet whirred to life, and Beardo beamed. "Yes! Finally!" Just as he finished his exclamation, the jet zoomed out of its resting place. Beardo was moving so fast that the force of the jet engine's speed was pushing him into his chair. Despite the strong resistance, he managed to pull back on the joystick, and the jet engine began to climb into the air.

Sammy and Shawn gaped as Beardo whizzed past them, both shaken by the sheer force of his speed.

Scarlett had caught up to the zeppelin, and was arming herself with an egg.

"Alright, time to secure another victory," she murmured to herself. Just as she was about to throw, she heard-

"Look out!"

Scarlett looked up, and gasped as Beardo sped past her, blowing her plane off-balance.

"Gah! Watch where you're flying!" She reprimanded, clinging to her spinning plane for dear life.

"Sorry!" Beardo called, attempting to make his rocket circle around when it cruised out in front of the zeppelin. At that point, he seemed to be getting control of his machine.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Okay, that was an accident," Beardo said carefully in the outhouse, "but since we need to make sure Scarlett doesn't win, I'll say I did that on purpose." He gave an awkward smile before the confessional ended.

* * *

As both Beardo and Scarlett attempted to regain control over their respective transports, Sammy and Shawn approached the zeppelin.

"Hand over that million, Heather!" Sammy shouted, tossing an egg at the zeppelin.

"Yeah, and the blimp too!" Shawn added, throwing an egg of his own.

Both eggs bounced harmlessly off the zeppelin's balloon.

Inside the gondola, Heather laughed at their attempts.

When the pair saw that the eggs had no effect, Shawn frowned as he held one up. "Chris should've known that the eggs wouldn't work."

"Got any other ideas?" Sammy called over to him.

"This just in!" A new voice cut in, and the pair looked behind them. The camera cut to Topher, apparently now in the air and flapping his attached wings. "Topher is in the air! In other news, so are the goats!" The camera zoomed out to show, hovering a few feet away from Topher were the three mutant, flying goats that Chef had stolen the eggs from. "And they're extra mad!"

The goats bleated, and began to spew fire from their mouths. Topher yelped, and dove out of their way.

"Hey, don't be mad at us! We weren't the ones that took your eggs!" Sammy yelled at the goats as she and Shawn maneuvered to avoid the flames.

"Yeah, the guy who owns the blimp? He stole the eggs," Shawn explained, pointing at the zeppelin. "Be mad at him instead!"

The goats seemed to take the advice, and flew up to the zeppelin.

Topher flew back up, joining Shawn and Sammy in their airspace. "Manipulative! I like it," he praised Shawn.

The goats began to swarm the gondola, and Heather gasped, running to the side door. She leaned out, holding more Gemmie awards. "You want a piece of me? Huh?" Clearly irritated, she started to throw the statuettes.

Sammy held her arms up, covering her face as the statuettes bounced off her balloon. "Hey, watch it! Those could puncture my balloon!"

Shawn frowned, twisting the handlebar of his helicopter. "I've got your back, Samey!" He flew his machine in front of Sammy's balloon, and started navigating it in front of every statuette that came their way, even spinning the helicopter to knock one away.

"I'll take a couple of those, thank you!" Topher sang cheerfully, catching one and then another either from Heather herself or off of Shawn's rebound.

At that point, Sammy heard the familiar sound of a plane, and looked ahead. "Oh no, Scarlett's coming around again!"

Indeed, Scarlett had flown ahead of the zeppelin, and was now turning around for another circle.

"If she's found a way to take out the blimp, we're screwed!" Shawn shouted.

Topher flew up beside the two again. "What's the big deal? Scarlett winning immunity can't mean the end of the world, can it?"

"Actually, it can!" Shawn replied, shooting Topher a look out of the corner of his eye.

Sammy looked up at Topher pleadingly. "Scarlett has the invincibility statue! If we don't make her play it now, she has a chance of reaching the finale!"

"Scarlett has the statue?!" Topher repeated before grinning. "That gives me an idea! Samey, find a way to keep Scarlett from stopping the blimp! Shawn, ram your helicopter into the front!"

"What? What good will that do?"

"Just trust me!" Topher then flew away from the pair.

"You have any idea what he's thinking?" Sammy asked Shawn.

"No clue, but it might be our only shot if we want to stay in the game!" Shawn answered, shrugging helplessly before flying on ahead.

Sammy watched him go for a moment before looking at the smoke machine in her lap. A scowl formed on her face not too different from Amy's usual one.

Scarlett tilted her lever back, and snickered sinisterly to herself as her plane began to rise up towards the zeppelin. "She won't see me coming from down here."

"Hey, Scarlett!" Sammy's voice called out, making Scarlett blink as she tilted her head curiously.

Sammy lifted the smoke machine in her hands.

"How's _this_ for inferior?" The cheerleader twin quipped, throwing the smoke machine down with all her might.

Scarlett gasped in a close-up of her face, her eyes going wide. The scene zoomed out, just in time to see the smoke machine collide with her propeller. The contact resulted in Scarlett screaming as her plane exploded, herself falling out of the sky with only a couch cushion.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

Scarlett sat rigidly, her hands out in front of her and both hands along with one of her eyes frequently twitching. "Must… stick… with… plan!"

* * *

Sammy sighed blissfully, looking down and watching Scarlett fall. "That felt so good…"

"Watch out!" Beardo's voice rang out.

"Huh?" Sammy looked up, and screamed. The camera zoomed out on her contraption this time as Beardo's rocket flew right past her balloon, sending it into a frenzied spin. Sammy shrieked as her balloon began to spin rapidly.

"Sorry!" Beardo apologized loudly as he pulled on his joystick. "Man, just when I thought I had the hang of this." He might've been pulling a little too much on the joystick during his time in the air because the joystick snapped in two. "Aw, for real?" He began to scream as his rocket began to incline even more. By the time it passed the zeppelin, it was vertical enough for Beardo to fall out of his seat. He grunted as he bounced off, fell down past the zeppelin, and managed to snag his hand on the chair of Sammy's balloon.

The force from his fall was enough to make the balloon stop spinning, and was enough to jerk Sammy out of her seat.

Sammy's screams continued as she fell.

Seeing what had happened, Beardo reached out his hand that wasn't hanging onto Sammy's balloon helplessly. "Samey!"

Sammy's screams cut off abruptly when she landed on something furry.

Opening her eyes, Sammy blinked, and she noticed she was on the back of one of the goats. "Um, nice goat?" She said kindly.

The goat bleated, and started flying around to try and shake her off.

"No! Please don't! Bad goat! Bad goat!" Sammy shrieked as the goat flew every which way. From afar, Beardo watched her as he successfully climbed up into Sammy's chair. "STOP!" Sammy exclaimed, grabbing hold of the goat's horns and pulling roughly.

The goat bleated once more, grimacing at the pain Sammy was inflicting on it. Almost instantly, it obeyed Sammy, and stopped to hover mid-air.

"That's better," Sammy panted heavily, slumping on the goat's back. "That's much better." Blinking, she looked up as the other two goats joined up. "What the? Do I control them all now?"

Beardo pumped his fist, watching. "Woohoo! Way to go, Samey!"

* * *

Shawn glanced down at the handlebars of his helicopter, and thought out loud, "I don't know what kind of plan Topher has, but I hope it's a good one. Yah!" The conspiracy nut did just as Topher told him to, and rammed his helicopter into the front of the zeppelin's gondola.

Heather screeched in horror, diving to the floor and away from the steering wheel as glass shattered around her. When she saw her intruder, she scowled and grabbed the money.

"That was painful," Shawn mumbled to himself. At that point, he noticed Heather walking towards him, and stood upright. "Game over. Hand over that million!"

Looking at him, Heather sniffled. "I'm sorry. All I wanted was the money, but this has gone too far."

Shawn raised an eyebrow at her, caught off-guard by her sudden surrender.

"Here," she continued to say as she held up the case, "just take it."

Still eyeing her, Shawn reached a hand for the case when Heather started swinging it at him. "Ow! What's wrong with you?" he asked between blows until she had him on the floor.

"I was robbed!" Heather complained, giving him the stink-eye. "I deserve this money!" Turning away from Shawn, she moved to head back to steering the gondola.

"The only thing you deserve is a hurl on the catapult!" Shawn shot back, reaching out and grabbing her foot, forcing her to trip.

"Augh, let go of me you smelly creep!"

The duo wrestled for dominance, and for the case. As they fought, the scene transitioned to outside the gondola where Beardo attempted to figure out how Sammy controlled her balloon. Meanwhile, Topher flew up to the gondola.

"Sweet! The coast is clear," Topher grinned while flying up to the side door. He gripped the handle and flung the door open, intending to climb in, but his wings prevented him from doing so. "Ugh, stupid wings." Unclipping his harness, he let the wings drop while he slipped inside the gondola.

The sight Topher was immediately met with was Shawn and Heather wrestling on the floor with the case between them.

"Let go!" Heather demanded.

"Never!" Shawn replied.

Fortunately for him, neither seemed to notice that he had entered. So when he noticed the steering wheel and the control panel, it was easy for him to slip by them to get to it.

"Uh, how do you turn this thing around?" The aspiring TV host wondered to himself. The controls looked all so complicated, and he doubted that the zeppelin would just turn around with a spin of the wheel. Chris did say they didn't have to bring the zeppelin back, just stop it so he could save his awards. "Let's see… Press this, press that, flip this, spin that, and there we go!" Deciding to heck with it, he pressed a few random buttons, flipped a switch, and then spun the steering wheel.

As soon as he did that, the floor underneath all three began to shift. Topher managed to grip the control panel, but Shawn and Heather ended up slamming into the wall.

"Ow!" Heather winced as her back hit the wall. Shawn ended up on top of her, along with the case, and she shoved away both in anger. "Get off of me!"

Shawn stumbled to his feet, clutching the case. Noticing Topher was now present, he asked, "What did you do?"

"Stop the blimp, just like we planned," Topher answered, glancing out the window. "Looks like it worked. This thing's going down!"

"What?!" Heather gasped.

"We gotta get out of here!" Shawn declared, scrambling for the door Topher had come through.

"Hey, me first!"

Topher moved to join them, and all three stumbled out of the rapidly descending zeppelin one by one.

"I don't like falling like this, but at least I still have the case," Shawn commented, holding out the case in front of him.

As if on cue, Chris flew up with his jetpack and claimed the case by the handle. "A million bucks, finders keepers!" Then the host took off again.

"You're welcome!" Shawn sarcastically hollered, putting a hand to his mouth. Something the camera couldn't see stopped his fall. "Huh?"

The camera zoomed out to show Sammy had one of the goats catch him by the back of his jacket.

"You're welcome," Sammy giggled, winking at him.

Shawn blinked, and then smiled at her. "Thanks, Samey!"

Down in the lake, a soaked Scarlett treaded water, using the cushion she had fallen with as a flotation device. She muttered to herself, "Must not change plan… must not change plan…"

Twin screams sounded out from above, and she looked up to see Topher and Heather falling down onto her, causing a big splash.

Afar, Sammy and Shawn could be seen flying back to the island on the goats while Beardo trailed behind in the balloon, the late afternoon sun low and turning the sky orange.

* * *

Later that evening, the final five sat in the front row together. Topher sat on the camera's left end with a marshmallow in his hands. Scarlett sat beside him, followed by Beardo, Shawn, and Sammy at the far right end. Like Topher, Shawn also had a marshmallow in his hands. Topher was pleased, Scarlett was indifferent, and Beardo, Shawn, and Sammy

"Elimination time!" Chris announced. "Shawn, you took out Heather, and Topher, you stopped the zeppelin, so you both are safe. The rest of you are on the chopping block. Regular marshmallow means you're safe. Toxic Marshmallow of Loserdom means you're out, and probably mutated. Beardo, you're safe."

Beardo smiled as he caught his marshmallow. Scarlett's scowl instantly deepened while Sammy bit her lip.

"Samey, Scarlett," Chris began to say, "one of you are about to receive the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom. That person is…"

Scarlett dropped her scowl, and instead smirked, folding her arms over her chest. Sammy noticed this, and her eyes flickered over to Shawn meaningfully. Shawn noticed the gaze she was giving him, and he nodded his head. Sammy then glanced back at Chris.

"…Scarlett!" Chris finally said.

Chef moved to give her the glowing marshmallow when she spoke up. "Actually, I won't be receiving that marshmallow." Scarlett reached behind her, and pulled out the invincibility statue Chris had shown them on the first day. "I have immunity. I had a feeling that I would be the one voted off if I didn't win a challenge, so I made sure to have this on hand just in case."

"The invincibility statue, nice!" Chris complimented.

"She really had it?" Beardo confirmed, his eyebrows shooting up.

Topher threw his marshmallow in his mouth, saying, "Talk about a twist on the usual ceremony."

"I knew it!" Shawn stood up, staring at Scarlett. "I knew the moment Samey said you told her about a safety net. I knew that was it."

"So, I get the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom now?" Sammy spoke up, hesitant to be saying those words.

"That's exactly what happens," Scarlett smirked as she glanced down at Sammy, lifting a finger. "Let this be a lesson to all of you to not be a thorn in my side." She waved that finger in all of her fellow competitors' faces.

Chris grinned, "Actually, not quite." He held up slips of paper. "Scarlett had three votes, but the other two votes were for one person each, Beardo and Sammy. With the invincibility statue played, that means all votes against Scarlett are now void. It's a tie!"

Topher shot Chris a finger pistol. "Now that's a twist!"

"So how do we decide who leaves now?" Shawn asked.

Chris glanced at Chef. "Well, on World Tour we had a mini challenge right at the elimination ceremony if there was a tie, but I didn't have anything planned for here. Might as well do a re-vote, except this time you can only vote for Beardo or Sammy, and those two can't vote this time." The five campers looked at each other. "So, Topher, Scarlett, and Shawn, get voting."

"You're going to want this marshmallow back," Beardo held out his marshmallow that he had previously received.

The following clips were of Scarlett, Shawn, and Topher each scribbling a name down on a slip of paper in the confessional outhouse.

"The votes have been cast," Chris declared. Holding them up, he read the ballots, "in a vote 2 to 1…"

Beardo stared at the host pleadingly.

Sammy bit her lip again, and started rubbing at her arm.

"The one going home is… Beardo!"

Beardo stood up, pupils shrunk. "Say what?!"

Sammy sighed in relief, Shawn placing his hand on her back comfortingly. Scarlett looked annoyed, and Topher had a poker face.

Looking at the others, Beardo sighed. "You know what? I might not have gotten farther, but I'm glad I got this far. On the first day, I couldn't even speak to y'all, but now? I feel comfortable saying a few words to all of you."

"Sorry it had to be this way, man," Shawn apologized, approaching Beardo and giving him a fist bump.

"No hard feelings?" Topher asked, also approaching to give a fist bump.

Beardo bumped fists with both of them. "Not a one."

Sammy walked up to him, and hugged him goodbye. "Take care, okay?"

"I will." Releasing Sammy's hug, Beardo nodded to Scarlett.

Scarlett nodded back to him. "Had things gone as they were supposed to, you would still be here if that means anything to you."

"Thanks, I think," Beardo acknowledged, though a bit confused.

Chef approached, opening the box containing the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom again.

Seeing it, Beardo waved it off and walked past him. "No need, I'm going, I'm going."

* * *

A flash forward showed him in the Hurl of Shame's bucket. Chris stood by the bucket while Chef stood at the lever.

"Any final words?" Chris inquired.

"It was nice meeting all of you!" Beardo stated as Chef pushed the lever, and the human soundboard disappeared into the night sky.

"And then there were four," Chris began his outro in an extreme close-up of his face. "Who will win the million? Who will get crushed while millions watch and laugh? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Beardo- 5th**

 **Jasmine- 6th**

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **So, Scarlett's plan failed this time, but does this mean it'll work next time? We'll have to wait and see. Beardo's elimination also marks the end of a set of eliminations interesting over the story's development. Funny story, in the original draft I had for the elimination order, Beardo was supposed to be eliminated last episode instead of Jasmine. I'm not entirely sure, but I think my reasoning was because he was originally voted off first in the teams in canon, so he would be first eliminated in the merge since that required him to be more involved with the other competitors. Then before I had solidified the team swap between Jasmine and Sky, Jasmine was originally Scarlett's first planned elimination, and that left Sky slated to be eliminated at the final five. Once the story became more developed, the three of them shifted up an elimination slot (or down two in Sky's case).**

 **Beyond having Beardo last through the first elimination instead of Leonard, I had no idea what I was going to do with Beardo. I suppose as I wrote along, Beardo's story eventually became a story about slowly warming up to the others, hence why it took him until episode three to say a word to the others. Beardo's a shy person, so I imagine he wouldn't want to get himself very involved with these strangers he's only known for less than two or three weeks. By not getting too involved other people's lives and only helping out when he was asked, he became a very UTR character. Now that he was in the merge, and couldn't hide behind the rest of his team's tension, he was thrust into the spotlight and was forced to get involved. As one can see, that backfired spectacularly in a way.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome! Oh, and happy holidays! Consider this episode my holiday gift to you, my readers! See you all in 2018!**


	11. TDRI Episode 11

**SideshowJazz1:** Every character has their flaws. Scarlett thinks because she represents one extreme, she needs to eliminate those that possibly represent the other extreme or those that share her extreme. If she is the only extreme, she is more likely to win. Good points on why she might go after Shawn or Sammy in the next vote. As for a girl-girl finale? We'll have to see.

 **The Phenomenal Flair (previously known as OmniPlanckInstant):** Yeah, underestimating Sammy was a mistake on Scarlett's part. And yeah, the invincibility statue was the safety net. Unlike canon, where it was used immediately after it was found, I wanted to save it for a dramatic twist. Topher should definitely not be underestimated; everyone can be a surprising player when given the chance. Topher's success in Cast Swap is largely attributed to his lack of ability to talk with Chris. Because the challenges are action-oriented and Chris is watching from far off, Topher can't really ditch the challenge to try and speak with him. Heather will probably learn to respect people around her age someday when she's off her high school power trip, at least until she gets an executive position in a company or something. Yeah, Chris is ultimately the main villain of the series, but since he's not a contestant, opportunities to knock him down a peg need to be taken sometimes to even the score.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **That British Guy:** Yeah, that's one of Topher's flaws. Sorry that you're going to miss Beardo.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Thank you, and kudos to you for recognizing the tiebreaker. I put that in as the tiebreaker because Total Drama is based off that show, and I wanted a quick way to break the tie and get the elimination I wanted. Interesting final two prediction and reasons why you think that to be the case. Yeah, Chris is going to be pretty pissed with Shawn. It's going to be fun to watch!

 **sdgeek:** I aim to surprise!

 **SilentSinger948:** Interesting final two prediction. We'll have to wait and see if you're right. Yeah, it's a nice sight to see Sammy confident, and yes, Shawn's got trouble on his hands.

 **Joel Connell:** Unexpected is what I was going for. Commando Sammy is possible, but you'll have to wait and see if it happens. As for Sammy being Gwen's friend in All-Stars, I cannot answer that question because spoilers. I'll consider doing an ending that explains what happened to all three generations, but it depends on what ends up happening to the canon series in the future and how I want to end my story.

 **The Fat Albert:** Thank you for the compliment! Thanks for the predictions too.

 **sunset:** Thank you! Wait no longer because the next episode is here!

 **RedHornedUnicowz:** In Sammy's defense, she was caught up in her confrontation with Scarlett so she didn't make the connection until Shawn brought it up.

 **Fangren:** Thank you! I understand you're not completely sold on Scarlett's plan. I thought that considering she doesn't really like other people, she'd prefer working on her own when the game allows her to do so and she'd finally be able to stop playing nice. Thank you for your final two prediction. Time will tell if your prediction is right. Also, thank you for being my 100th review on this story! Thanks to you, I was able to close out 2017 with a solid 100 reviews on this story, and that made me so happy!

Now with the reviews out of the way, it's time to cook some mutated food and hunt some dorks!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything in the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one, and a few Total Drama shirts.

Episode 11- Eat, Puke, and Be Wary

"Previously on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated as clips of the previous episode began to play. "An epic air battle turned into an epic fail when Samey crashed Scarlett's ride and her chances of winning. Beardo and Topher attempted to join Shawn and Samey in taking down Scarlett, but Scarlett was immune thanks to the invincibility statue.

"A tie in votes occurred," the host continued over a clip of the campers staring at him in shock as he gave the news, "and a re-vote was in session. After weeks of flying under everyone's radar, Beardo got put in the spotlight, and got hurled."

A flash cut to the present, where two kites were seen floating in the wind. The viewpoint shifted to show that Chris and Chef were the two kites' fliers.

"We're down to the final four. Who's going to the finals, and who's going to be cut loose?" Chris took out a pair of scissors, and snipped the line of Chef's kite. He chuckled as the kite crashed into the lake, and Chef gave him a glare. "Yeah, like that. Find out right here on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue intro)

* * *

Three pink birds chirped happily together on a tree branch. A laser squirrel scampered up the tree trunk to their level, and zapped the poor things, making them explode in a pile of feathers. The squirrel chittered mischievously as the camera panned down to the ground with the feathers.

Sammy picked one out of the air, and stared at it as she followed behind Shawn. After a moment, she looked up. "Shawn, do we really have to talk strategy all the way out here?"

Holding up one hand, Shawn stopped in his tracks, making Sammy do the same as he proceeded to bend down and examine one of his traps he was setting up at the beginning of the previous episode. "Yes, we do. Scarlett could be trying to follow us and eavesdrop on our plans. We need as much space between her and us as possible. Also," he said as he stood upright, and gestured for Sammy to follow him again, "I want to make sure all of my traps are still in working order, and that none were set off by anything other than a zombie."

"You really don't like zombies, do you?"

"Nope," Shawn answered, popping the 'p' in his answer. "Ever since I first learned about them when I was little, they've been my mortal enemy." He paused for a moment as he considered that sentence. "Actually, make that immortal enemy since they're already dead. Anyway, now that we flushed out Scarlett's invincibility statue, we just need to prevent her from winning the next challenge so we can vote her off."

"Sounds easy," Sammy commented with a smile, and then frowned. "I just hope the next challenge isn't a mental one, otherwise we might actually be in trouble."

Shawn nodded. "Yeah, that's a concern of mine too." Stopping again, he held out his hand to signal Sammy to do the same. "Stop! Pit trap." At Sammy's curious look over his shoulder, Shawn stuck out his foot and tapped it against the ground three times until the trap gave way and showed itself. "Ninety-nine percent sure that zombies can't climb, so ya know, hole."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"While Shawn and I were on different teams, I thought he was kinda strange," Sammy admitted meekly, almost as if she was unsure she should be making a comment like that about Shawn. "Once Jasmine left and she asked him to help me out, I've found out that he's kinda cool once you get to know him, and he's a lot like Jasmine in several ways. I'm sure if they got set up on a date somehow, they'd be perfect for each other."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

Scarlett pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning in an annoyed tone. "My plan was going perfectly, and that last elimination screwed it up. Shawn was supposed to leave, and that would leave me and my superior intelligence against Samey's mediocre athletic skill, Beardo's unique vocal skill, and Topher's… whatever he has. This is not how the final four is supposed to be. In addition, my invincibility statue has been used, so now unless I win the next challenge, I am in extreme danger of not securing my victory.

"I've contemplated my possible moves since the last elimination," Scarlett stated as she pulled out her notepad. "From what I've assessed of my current situation, my best plan is to turn enough attention away from me to survive this next elimination should I not receive invincibility, and then focus all of my efforts on winning the next challenge. To that end, it might be time for Topher to be of use to me."

* * *

The static transitioned to the porch of the former Toxic Rats' cabin, where Topher seemed to be reading through a magazine with Chris on the cover.

The aspiring TV host glanced up from his magazine, and smirked, lowering it. "Well, isn't this an interesting turn of positions?"

Scarlett frowned at him as she walked over. "Topher, we need to speak."

"Let me guess," Topher replied, still smirking. "You're here to offer me an alliance so you can save your butt from being the next one in the catapult."

Scarlett's eye twitched at Topher's cocky tone and choice of words. "That is… a succinct summary of what I'm here for. Listen, I'm aware that should I not receive immunity from the next challenge, the other two will more than likely vote for me. That is why I propose to counteract their votes, we vote for whichever one does not receive immunity, and force a tie."

"And if you do get the immunity," Topher added, "they're more than likely to vote me out over each other, so I would need the tie to stay in." Staying quiet for a moment as he thought the situation over, he shrugged as he lifted up his magazine to read again. "Alright, you have a deal."

"Excellent," Scarlett smirked before shooting Topher a dark look, "but I warn you. Should you betray me, I will hunt you down once we are outside of this show. I am not a very forgiving person." Her warning given, she turned on her heel and walked away from the cabin.

Rolling his eyes at Scarlett's threat, Topher casually turned the page of his magazine. "She really needs to chill out."

A set of bushes nearby rustled, and Sammy poked her head out. Looking every which way first, she stepped out of the bushes, and walked over to the cabin.

"Hey, Topher? Got a second?" Sammy asked.

"You want me to join you and Shawn in voting off Scarlett if she doesn't win immunity," Topher guessed without even looking up.

Sammy blinked, taken aback by how spot-on he was. "Oh, um, yeah. That's what I was going to ask."

"Figured as much. Look, I'll think about it. I've got my own game to think about too, and how that would help me in the long run."

"Okay," Sammy said unsurely, "just please consider doing it." She then walked back the way she came.

The camera focused squarely on Topher reading his magazine, and then he glanced up at the camera filming him with a raised eyebrow and a grin.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher stood in the outhouse with his magazine rolled up in one hand. "This is great! Two sides really need me for their own purposes, and I hold all the power of the next elimination in my hands." Thinking thoughtfully, he tapped his magazine to his chin. "I play my cards right, and I'm in the final two for sure!"

* * *

The final four stood lined up in front of Chris and Chef, who were standing by the communal washrooms.

"Challenge time!" Chris announced, beginning to walk past the campers. "And since you've been abused so flagrantly, today's challenge is a super safe fun challenge!"

Shawn, Sammy, and Scarlett all cheered while Topher actually did the opposite and complained.

Continuing to walk past the final four, Chris explained, "Get ready for bubbles, flowers, and cotton cand-!" His explanation cut short when the sound of something snapping occurred, and Chris went wide-eyed for a moment before something picked up his body and threw it into the washrooms with a scream from the host's mouth.

Sammy, Scarlett, and Topher all cringed in disgust and sympathy. Shawn, however, froze in realization. "Oh man, Chris just set off one of my zombie snares!" The conspiracy nut exclaimed.

Chef rushed over to the washrooms, and threw open the door, soon waving his hand in front of his face. "Hoo-wee! I need five interns and a fire hose ASAP!" He looked inside, showing an expression of concern for his friend inside. "We'll get you out of there soon."

Inside, Chris gagged before his voice turned outraged, "Those ungrateful puppets just crossed the line! Remember your nasty challenges, Chef?" The camera briefly cut to the final four, all looking nervous about what Chris was saying. "The ones that got the red light? Yeah, the light just turned green!"

A menacing smile on his face, Chef closed the door and turned towards the contestants. "I'll bring the pain," he declared before breaking into a maniacal cackle as thunder boomed and lightning flashed.

The final four all darted their eyes upwards in horror until they noticed that the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. They returned their gazes to Chef as the effects continued, and gave him dirty looks.

As it turned out, a trio of interns were helping make the effects. One was flickering a light for lightning, another had a sheet to make the sound of thunder, and the other raising and lowering a tarp. After a few more moments, Chef raised his hand to signal for them to stop. "Okay, cool it!"

* * *

The scene flashed forward to where the final four were all stationed behind what looked like wooden portable kitchens. Scarlett was set up on the far left of the camera's view, Shawn to her right, followed by Sammy, and then Topher on the end.

"Listen up, dirtbags!" hollered Chef as he marched past them, "I'm gonna push you until you break. Then, I'll take the filthy broken bits and give them another good breaking." He mimed breaking something into two pieces before turning back to address the contestants. "No wimps are going to make it to my finale. Do you understand?" He held up a finger. "First challenge- the cook-off!"

"Cooking?" Topher raised an eyebrow. "Don't you remember that Chris' cooking show was so bad it got cancelled after one episode?" A frying pan flew on-screen and clonked him in the head. "Ow!" the aspiring host yelped as he fell down in pain.

"Shut it, or I'll shut it!" Chef ordered as he raised his hand to catch the frying pan as it somehow boomeranged back to him. Once he had it, he looked over his shoulder. "Bring in the TD classic competitor."

The short, chubby intern with glasses wheeled over a hand cart with a big, familiar gentle giant tied to it with a cloth tied over his eyes.

Sammy beamed, pointing. "Hey, it's DJ!"

Chef whipped off DJ's blindfold, and DJ got a look around. "No, not here! I vowed to never be back as long as there was breath in my lungs!"

In response, Chef held a stack of papers up to DJ's face. "Your contract disagrees, Dough Boy." The man faced the contestants. "You slime buckets are going to cook something tasty, and this bag of mush will be the judge," he explained while jabbing a thumb at DJ. "You've got twenty minutes to make a tasty lunch with whatever you find on the island. I believe in eating locally. Ready?"

"Um, what will we have for seasonings?" Shawn spoke up, raising his hand.

Chef raced over with two pans, shouting, "Get cooking!" Shawn yelped, ducking as Chef banged the two pans together as if the man was going to smash his head between them. Once given the signal, Shawn ran off with Sammy and Scarlett on his tail.

* * *

The scene flashed as it transitioned to somewhere in the woods. A moose with bat wings for antlers grazed on the grass until the camera picked up the sound of someone panting and running. The moose flapped its antler-wings, and flew away just as Topher entered the scene.

"Okay, got to make something," he murmured to himself while looking around, "what's easy enough to make that doesn't require a whole lot of effort or ingredients?" Briefly looking down at his feet, he soon snapped his fingers in realization. "Soup! I'm going to need some stuff like vegetables to put in it." With an idea of what to make, he ran off in search of vegetables.

* * *

Elsewhere, the camera zoomed in on some glowing mushrooms growing on the side of a tree before pulling back to show Shawn appraising them. The tree precariously stood as it seemed a beaver had nearly chewed through the trunk.

"Hm, mushrooms? They could be useful. Lots of dishes include mushrooms as an ingredient," he said thoughtfully before reaching up to pick them.

"An excellent choice," Scarlett spoke up from off-screen, causing Shawn to look over his shoulder as she appeared. "Mushrooms are not only gluten-free and low in calories, but they also provide valuable nutrients such as vitamin D and potassium. Care to split them?"

Shawn huffed, turning his attention back to the mushrooms. "Go away, Scarlett. I'm not sharing any of my ingredients."

"I suspected as much." Scarlett pursed her lips, deciding to change tactics. "I understand that you and Samey are targeting me, and I understand the reason why. However, you must understand what I did was purely strategic, no personal motives behind it in any way or form."

"Even if it wasn't personal," Shawn gathered the mushrooms in his hands, "it still is personal to those it affects."

"True, but I do have a suggestion about strategy. Instead of eliminating myself, you should focus on eliminating Topher," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Shawn paused, staring at Scarlett, who raised an eyebrow at him. "…Topher? Why him?"

"While he does not possess any unique skill sets, Topher does have one advantage on his side- Chris. Even if Chris is supposed to be impartial as a host, we cannot deny that he has bent the rules for contestants he is fond of in the past. Don't you think it would be possible for Chris to put the finale in Topher's favor, should he get that far?"

Shawn frowned as Scarlett's words sunk in, and he glanced at his mushrooms. "That does sound like something Chris would do…"

Scarlett smirked, "Consider how Topher's presence may affect your future. With how far Topher has come without being as specialized as you or I, it is certainly something to ponder."

As Scarlett left, the conspiracy nut leaned against the now mushroom-less tree. "What do I do?" He wondered to himself, and then felt the tree leave his back, causing him to look up in alarm. The already tipsy tree fell over onto a wooly beaver, and the beaver poked its head through a knothole in the tree, growling at Shawn. The conspiracy nut yelped, and ran off.

* * *

Back at the washrooms, the braces-wearing intern with the ponytail lounged against a pipe while sipping from a coffee.

"Hello?" Chris called from inside. "Someone give me a hand? I'm almost free! Oh no, wagh!" The intern looked up from her fingernails as she heard the sound of water sloshing. She smiled happily as Chris cried in despair, "Why?"

* * *

Still in the woods looking for ingredients, nearly all four of them seemed to hit a snag in their search. Shawn ran across the screen in the background, pursued by the wooly beaver. Topher ran through the foreground in the opposite direction, pursued by bees while he held what vaguely looked like a carrot and an onion. In the mid-ground, Scarlett ran the same way Shawn did while clutching a handful of eggs that most likely belonged to the flying mutant goats that were chasing her. Once Scarlett left the screen, Sammy ran onto it, skidding to a halt as she stopped by a vine.

"Maybe I should do something safe, like a salad? That doesn't involve cooking anything," she mused while plucking leaves from the vine.

* * *

Sammy hummed a tune as she tossed her leaves and what looked like blackberries in a bowl with two spoons. Moments later, the salad came alive as vines protruded from the bowl. One vine grabbed hold of Sammy's head while the other grabbed one of the spoons and began to whack her with it.

At Topher's station, the aspiring host put a pot in his sink, and turned on the tap to fill the pot with water. His faucet made a groaning noise, prompting him to raise an eyebrow and remove his pot so he could take a look at it. Leaning underneath it, he squinted one eye up at it, only for a jet of water to spray down on him by surprise.

As Topher gurgled frantically, the camera panned over to Shawn at his station with a pan ready and his collected mushrooms in a bowl. "The mushrooms should make a good quiche," the conspiracy nut thought out loud before dropping a few of them in the pan and starting to cook them.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"I have a bakery job at home," Shawn noted fondly. "So I'm pretty good in a kitchen. It pays well, and I'm so great at cake-decorating, I could decorate myself and camouflage to hide from the zombies."

* * *

As Shawn continued to cook his mushrooms, Scarlett watched from her station as she cracked open a goat egg into her frying pan. "While the eggs are more than large enough, an omelet requires more ingredients for an enjoyable eating experience," she thought to herself before looking at one of her unused eggs and donning an evil smirk.

After a bit of being smacked by her own salad, Sammy finally had enough, and reached under her station for a surprisingly large wooden mallet, and pounded the attacking vines into submission. When they stopped attacking her, Sammy sighed in relief.

Topher plopped a few slices of chopped up onion into the large pot sitting on his stove, stirred with a ladle for a few moments before taking out the ladle and taste-testing his creation. "Hm, needs a little something…" Reaching down under his station, he brought up the three-eyed frog seen in a previous episode, and squeezed it, causing it to squirt a pink liquid into his pot.

Shawn had put on the crust of his quiche, and was preparing to put it in the oven when something collided with the back of his head.

"Huh?" He wondered, feeling back with his hand, and once he brought his hand back around to examine, he saw a liquid coating his fingers. "Ahh!" He screamed, too distracted by his find to notice Scarlett swipe leftover mushrooms from his station.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"I had more than enough eggs for an omelet. I could spare one of them for a distraction," Scarlett explained.

* * *

Sammy added a squirt of a white substance that looked a lot like salad dressing on her creation, and then put the bottle aside, lifting up her bowl. "Done!" The camera zoomed in on the creation, a bright yellow background behind it as angelic music played, which quickly took an ominous tone as the vines twitched and the blackberries uncurled into spiders.

"Me too!" Topher added, spooning a ladleful of his soup into a bowl. Like Sammy's creation before it, it was zoomed-in on with the background and music playing, also taking an ominous tone as the oddly-colored soup bubbled.

Scarlett scooped her rather large omelet onto a plate, and held it up for the camera to see. "My omelet is finished as well." While the omelet was shown in the same way Sammy and Topher's creations were, the music finished on a flat tone as the omelet looked largely unimpressive.

Seeing Scarlett finished, as well as his other competition, Shawn frowned, tapping his finger on his station in wait.

* * *

A flash forward showed Chef standing next to the still cart-bound DJ, lowering his fingers as he called, "Three, two, one! Spatulas down! Well? Dish it up, cupcakes! Move, move, move!"

Not wanting to invoke Chef's wrath further, the final four quickly scrambled into a line, each bearing their finished product. Shawn was in front with his decent-looking quiche, Scarlett in second with her omelet, Sammy in third with her salad, and Topher in the back with his soup.

Shawn stepped forward, presenting his creation to DJ. "I made a quiche," he said as DJ smiled at him, "with toxic mushrooms." DJ squeaked at the mention of that.

"Next!" Chef barked.

"I made an omelet," Scarlett said shortly.

DJ raised an eyebrow at her. "It looks kinda big."

Scarlett shrugged, "Not really an issue I could fix. The goat eggs were the only eggs I could find on short notice."

"Goat eggs?!" DJ nearly screeched in horror.

"Next!" Chef declared.

The genius redhead scowled at both Chef and DJ before reluctantly moving out of the line.

Walking up to DJ, Sammy blushed as she held up her bowl. "I-I made a salad. Don't ask about the dressing."

It was at that point somebody noticed the spiders. The spiders crawled from the bowl onto DJ, and the gentle giant whimpered as they skittered all over his body.

Topher's hand reached out to grab Sammy's arm, and pulled her and her salad away as she cried, "hey!" in protest. The aspiring host then stepped up in her place.

"I give you the Topher Final Four Special, with a hint of frog," Topher grandly introduced as he held out his bowl to DJ.

The camera zoomed in on Topher's soup, which continued to bubble. The bubbling seemed to increase rapidly, and it became so fast and grew so big that the entire thing just exploded. Some of the soup splattered all over Topher's face and shirt.

The same happened to DJ, but for him, that was the last straw.

Screaming in terror, the gentle giant broke free of his restraints, and quickly untied his legs before running off past Chef with his arms in the air.

Chef watched DJ go in surprise, but then regained his composure. "Welp, looks like we just lost our taste-tester. Rule change! You gotta eat all of your own weird grub," he told the contestants.

Sammy, Scarlett, and Topher all made noises of complaint while Shawn shrugged, not seemingly bothered by having to eat his own dish.

"You hurl, you lose!" Chef continued as the camera turned back to him. "Who's got guts of steel, and who's going to blast a barf bomb? It's a throw-up throwdown when we come back on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

Topher scoffed, "Chris does it a thousand times better." This comment earned him the stink-eye from Chef as the show faded to black for commercial.

* * *

When the show faded back in, Chef and the four contestants stood at a long table with their dishes in front of them.

"Alright, con-pest-ants, it's time to eat the disgusting crud you cooked up before the break," Chef announced.

The camera zoomed in on Sammy's salad, which twitched, and then panned up to Sammy's nervous expression.

"Whoever finishes their meal first without spewing wins the challenge," Chef continued as Sammy shared a look with Scarlett. "Man, this is gonna be nasty."

Taking a fork, Sammy poked it at her salad, and the spiders still on it moved around, making her wince.

On the other side of Chef, Topher scratched at his hair. "Aw man, why did I think adding the frog would be a good idea?" After voicing his thought, he glanced at Shawn next to him, who eagerly readied his silverware.

Holding up an air horn, Chef called, "Three, two, one, eat it!" Blaring the horn, that was the signal for the contestants to start eating.

Scarlett cut a piece of her omelet, and forked it into her mouth. After a few moments of chewing, she swallowed hard, and shuddered.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"I'm beginning to think that mutant goat eggs are not the proper eggs one should use for an omelet, or any kind of egg-based dish."

* * *

Beside her, Sammy ate a forkful of her salad, and then immediately clutched at her throat. "Ugh, I think a spider is trying to crawl back up!"

Taking a deep breath, Topher lifted up his bowl, intending to chug his soup down while Shawn happily cut a piece of his quiche. Lifting the bowl to his lips, the aspiring host started to slurp before his eyes widened, and he set the bowl down on the table, bending over to the side to vomit.

Seeing Topher vomit, Scarlett scrunched her eyes shut and looked away from his direction. "Don't look at it, don't think about it, it'll set off a social psychological react-!" Before she could finish her muttering, she couldn't hold it back, and threw up.

Sammy couldn't take much more of her salad either, and released her throat so she could puke as well.

Swallowing, Shawn smiled at his empty plate. "Oh man, it's been weeks since I had such good food! My compliments to the chef, hehe, myself!"

"The challenge is over! Shawn wins!" Chef walked over, and lifted up one of Shawn's arms in victory.

Topher now stood beside the girls, and they all moaned woozily from their previous vomiting.

Turning towards the three losers, Chef grinned, "That's why he doesn't have to wear one of these tracking collars." Holding up three metal collars in one hand, he tossed them around their necks. "Challenge part two, I give you- Dork Hunter!" The man then held up a tracking device with a screen. "The challenge is simple. You're the dorks, and I'm the hunter. You run off into the woods; I hunt you down. First dork to the flag pole wins!

"Pray that you make it before the dork hunter blasts you into a whole new dimension of pain," Chef held up a bazooka, and then a can with his face surrounded by flames on it. "Rocket-propelled spaghetti cannon," the man introduced as a commercial jingle played, "featuring my own special recipe. Chef Hatchet's In-Your-Face Spicy Spaghetti. Dinner is served… in your face!" He loaded a can into the bazooka, now sitting in a jeep, and fired.

The four contestants ducked, and the spaghetti blasted at them instead hit a nearby intern who was mowing the grass. The spaghetti hit the intern into a nearby rock, and the intern cried out, "It burns!"

Chef chuckled darkly, "Spicy… you've got twenty minutes to run, hide, and say your prayers. Now move out!" He fired his bazooka again, and the final four began running into the forest as they dodged the next few blasts.

The four split in two paths, Scarlett and Sammy took the left while Shawn and Topher took the right.

* * *

Behind the washrooms, three of the male interns, including the one that Chef had hit, gathered by the septic tank.

Still stuck in the washrooms, Chris shouted, "What's taking those interns so long?"

Two of the interns snickered while the third shushed them, and connected a pipe to the tank.

"There's no way they could've forgot about me. I own them!" continued Chris.

As the intern that Chef had hit held the pipe up to the tank, the next closest intern twisted the valve on top, and stuff could be heard moving through the pipes.

"More sewage?!" The trapped host exclaimed in horror while the interns snickered. "Help!"

* * *

Barf fell over a wild flower, drenching it. The camera zoomed out to show Sammy was the offender.

"Oog, I think I may have ruined salads for me for life," she moaned in despair. The sound of zapping and someone yelping in pain nearby made her look up.

She noticed it was none other than Scarlett.

"Infernal device," the genius redhead growled, "it appears to have an anti-removal feature which sends a strong electric current to the central nervous system."

Sammy walked over to her. "So basically, if we try to take it off by ourselves, we'll get shocked for it?"

Scowling at the cheerleader, Scarlett nonetheless nodded, "You are correct. If I had my calculator that Chris confiscated and a screwdriver, I could've reconfigured it to send out a small electromagnetic pulse to disrupt the collar's function and release us."

"Too bad we don't have either of those," Sammy replied, glaring back at her.

Rolling her eyes, Scarlett turned on her heel and began walking away. "Let's just keep moving and put some distance between us and that psychopath of a cook. I have no intention of staining red today."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Shock collars?" Topher said in disbelief as he spread his arms out in the confessional outhouse as much as he could. He crossed his arms, and glared at the camera. "Let the record show that when I become host of this show, none of Chef's challenges involving shock collars will ever get the green light!" His collar shocked him the moment he finished his declaration. "Ow!"

* * *

The static transitioned back to the challenge, where Chef was chuckling as he fired his bazooka.

His target was apparently Topher, who was running ahead of him.

The handsome boy ducked under a blast of spaghetti. "Chef, please! Watch the hair! You have any idea how long it takes in the morning to get it to look as awesome as this?" Looking ahead, he gasped and came to a stop. He had apparently ran to a cliff, and was out of room to run. He glanced over his shoulder.

"Hunt's over, dork!" Chef declared.

Holding his arms out in front of him, Topher desperately stated, "Please don't! I don't just look up to Chris; I look up to you too! Heck, my cat is named after you!"

Raising an eyebrow, Chef lowered his bazooka. "Really?"

"Oh yeah," Topher confirmed, calming down a bit. "I went out and got him after your first boot camp challenge. We're really close."

* * *

Static transitioned to what looked like some home footage inside Topher's home. The home video camera stepped closer and closer to an orange tabby cat lounging on a desk.

"Okay, Chef, time to look the part!" Topher said behind the camera. One of his hands appeared in the camera's vision, his hand holding a little chef's hat. "Here, let's put on the hat and the apron."

The cat opened one eye to look at its owner, and then leaped at the camera.

The camera shook as Topher shouted, "No! Bad Chef! Bad Chef!"

The footage skipped ahead, the cat once again lounging on the desk, but this time it was wearing the hat.

"Okay, no apron. We can work with the hat," Topher decided, sounding somewhat tired.

* * *

A static cut brought the footage back to the show. The aspiring host gave a hopeful smile to his hunter.

Chef hummed in thought, "Hm, flattery will get you somewhere with Chris." His grin turned devious. "But flattery won't get you anywhere with me." He pressed the trigger on his bazooka, and a ball of pasta and saucy meat flew out.

"No!" Topher cried out as he was struck, and fell backwards off the cliff.

"Maybe I'll come back for him," the substitute host considered before chuckling, "if I remember." He started to cackle as he put the jeep in reverse.

The camera panned down the cliff that Topher had fallen off of. Not too far down was a ditch, and the handsome boy appeared to be lying chest down in it. He groaned in pain, pushing himself up with his arms. "Okay, forget his challenges with shock collars. When I'm host, I'm getting a new co-host altogether." Looking around, he frowned. "Great, looks like I have to climb out of here before I can try and win." Sounding annoyed, he got to his feet and walked over to the opposite rock wall, beginning to climb it.

* * *

"Woohoo!"

Shawn swung on a vine through the woods.

"This challenge was made for me!" Shawn exclaimed happily, eventually letting go of the vine and dropping to the ground in a tuck-and-roll. "I pretty much know the woods like the back of my hand now, and I don't even need to set up traps to delay Chef from finding me. All of my zombie traps could be Chef traps!" The conspiracy nut laughed, acting like the kid he still was.

After a moment of laughter, he stopped and put his fists on his hips. "I wish Jasmine were still here. She would've made great competition for a challenge like this." A determined expression flashed across his face. "But she's not anymore, and if Samey and I are going to avenge her, then one of us has to win so we can boot out Scarlett."

* * *

"Would you cease following me? I will not have anyone piggybacking on my victory."

Sammy and Scarlett both jogged through the forest, each still wearing their shock collar.

"Um, who said I was following you? If anything, you're following me since I run faster!"

"Speed is irrelevant. I am the one who selected to attempt this direction, and you came this direction after I did. Therefore, you are following me."

The two girls were so involved in their bickering, neither saw the trip wire until it was too late. The moment Sammy's foot hit it, a net appeared from under them and snatched them up in the air.

"What the? A trap?" Scarlett asked, for once befuddled.

Sammy gasped, "Oh em gee, one of Shawn's zombie traps! He has like fifty of these things set up around the island!"

"Now you comprehend why I desire to eliminate him from the competition? If he can set up things like these, who is to say he wouldn't be able to win the finale," the genius redhead pointed out.

"I'm not helping you vote off somebody else, much less a friend," Sammy replied with a scowl.

Some nearby bushes rustled, and out came Chef Hatchet. The man eyed the trap, and chuckled, "What have we here? A couple of caught dorks!"

Scarlett shot Sammy a displeased look. "You see what you and your conspiracy theorist have gotten us into? Had we voted him off, we could've avoided this."

Sammy glanced at Chef. "Chef, don't shoot! At least, not at me! Shoot at Scarlett, and I'll do anything you want. I promise."

Chef hummed momentarily before grinning, "No deal!" He fired his bazooka, and both girls screamed as they were hit with hot pasta. Satisfied with his hit, the man slung his bazooka on his back, and went back to his jeep.

Up in the net, the two girls started wiping off the pasta from their skin and clothes. "He'll get his comeuppance," Scarlett muttered disdainfully, "I assure you."

"For once, no argument," Sammy agreed. The sound of sizzling caught her ear. "Hey, what's that sound?"

The two girls glanced up, and their mouths opened in shock. Apparently Chef's pasta was so hot, it was burning the ropes. Within moments, the pasta burned through the ropes, and sent them both crashing to the ground.

* * *

Chef drove along in his jeep, and checked his tracking device. "Huh, looks like the baby Chris got himself out of his hole."

The viewpoint changed, showing Topher wading his way through a bush onto an open path. The boy smiled as he walked onward, but a call forced him to look over his shoulder.

"Back for more, boy?"

Topher yelped in fright, and ran ahead. Soon as he left the screen, Chef appeared on it in his vehicle. Still driving, the man took aim with his bazooka, intending for a hit-and-run. However, as he was doing two things at the same time, he did not notice the trip wire that Topher luckily stepped over in his run and that his jeep snapped.

Without warning, a giant log smacked the jeep, sending Chef flying out. Having noticed the commotion, Topher stopped running to look back at Chef, and grinned at what he saw.

"Hah! What comes around, goes around! Right, Chef?" The boy taunted.

Provoked, Chef returned to his feet, and took aim with his weapon. Topher screamed, and continued his escape. "That's right! You better run, dork!"

* * *

The scene flashed forward, showing Shawn as he once again swung on a vine and landed in a clearing. The shaggy-haired boy grinned as he took in the sight before him.

"The flag pole," he exclaimed as said object was shown in an over-the-shoulder view. "I found it!" The viewpoint shifted back to the usual side-view as Shawn moved to claim victory, but before he could complete a single step, something collided with his back.

Shawn stumbled forward, too stunned by the sudden collision to avoid triggering another trap. He gave a yell as he fell into a pit, and was soon landed on by the very same thing that had collided with him moments before.

Groaning in pain, Shawn looked up and realized that what had knocked into him wasn't a what, but a who.

"Topher?" Shawn found himself asking as the camera showed Topher laying dizzily on top of him.

"That's my name," Topher replied as he regained his bearings, "don't wear it out." Shaking his head, he looked upward along with Shawn as a dark shadow loomed over the pit.

"Look what we have here," Chef taunted with his bazooka on his shoulder, "one dork found another dork, and right by the flag pole too."

Shawn and Topher screamed in fright, their eyes widening.

Chef loaded a new can of pasta into his bazooka. "I think we're all going to enjoy this serving, if not you two then at least I will." He fired.

Quickly throwing a glance below him, Topher rolled below Shawn and held the conspiracy nut above him like a shield. Shawn shrieked as hot pasta struck him.

"Sorry," Topher apologized, "but I've been shot at way too much today!"

Above the pit, Chef grinned to himself, "Ah, the sound of pain is delicious. Let's go for another round."

The viewpoint shifted to Chef's back as a camera rapidly approached it, shaking almost as if it were running.

Before Chef could fire more pasta at the boys, a pair of slim arms landed on his shoulders and vaulted off. Chef looked up as the owner of the arms flipped through the air.

On the other side of the pit, a pair of white, heeled boots landed perfectly, and the camera panned up the body to the smirking face of Sammy.

"Sorry, Chef, but dinner is no longer served!" The cheerleader twin boasted.

"Oh, is it?" Now realizing who had interrupted him, the brute of a cook smiled tauntingly. "Because I'm the cook here, and dinner isn't over until I say it is."

"Apologies, but we'd rather have dessert instead."

Chef whirled around at the new voice, and a burst of red and pale yellow shoved into him. The hulking man teetered backwards, wind-milling his arms desperately as he instinctively dropped his bazooka, and eventually fell into the pit with a short, deep scream.

Down in the pit, Shawn and Topher groaned in pain as Chef laid on top of them.

"Just as I promised," declared Scarlett as she and Sammy looked up from the pit, standing on opposite sides of it. "I did state he would get his comeuppance."

"Yeah, you did," Sammy admitted with a nod of her head.

"Now there's one thing left to take care of."

Sammy glanced over her shoulder, knowing what Scarlett meant. "The flag pole! It's so close!"

"Maybe for me, but for you, not quite."

Confused by what Scarlett meant, considering she was closer to the flag pole than Scarlett was, the cheerleader twin looked back at her enemy, and gasped.

Scarlett had claimed Chef's bazooka, and for such a tiny girl in comparison to it, was holding it quite effectively.

Sammy took a shaky step back away from Scarlett and the pit, a step closer to the flag pole. How was she supposed to go up against Scarlett and a pasta bazooka?

Scarlett grinned viciously. "I'd start running now." She fired a blast.

Yelping, Sammy ducked and ran for the flag pole. Moments later, Scarlett followed while still firing.

"Almost there…" Sammy griped, dodging the redhead's volleys. The viewpoint shifted to Sammy's perspective, the goal getting closer and closer. When the viewpoint shifted to the side again, Sammy tripped and fell to the ground. Lifting herself up with her elbows, she saw that Scarlett had managed to hit her foot, the pasta and sauce making her foot stick to one spot. She glanced up, and saw the flag pole was within reach, and then behind her, Scarlett discarding the bazooka and making a mad dash towards her. Not giving up, she stretched her arm out to the pole. "Come on… just reach…"

Scarlett ran closer.

"Just a little…" Sammy strained to reach.

Scarlett got closer.

The camera zoomed in as Sammy's fingers were mere inches from touching the pole.

A close-up of Scarlett's foot stepping by Sammy's body was shown.

Pulling back slightly, Sammy scrunched her eyes and thrust herself forward.

The next close-up was of a slim hand wrapping around the pole.

"Yes!" Sammy called out in victory as Scarlett slid to a stop on her knees beside her, crying out "No!"

The light on top of the pole began to spin, and an alarm started to sound. The camera panned down to the base of the pole where the two girls were, Sammy smiling proudly as Scarlett stared in shock.

"Samey wins immunity," Chef's voice said from off-screen, prompting the girls to look in the direction of the pit. Chef was trying to crawl out of the pit while explaining, "nobody can vote for Samey to- _night_!" With a cry of surprise, he fell back into the pit, eliciting groans from Shawn and Topher once more.

* * *

The scene flashed forward to that night's bonfire. The final four sat lined up in the front row, and Chef had put on his hazmat suit. Chris was still nowhere to be seen, and Chef had the box reserved for the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom in his hands.

"Elimination time, dorks!" began Chef as the camera panned over the final four one last time before one of them would be eliminated. "One of you is going home tonight except for Samey, who has immunity."

The mentioned girl smiled up until Scarlett began to speak. "That victory should've been mine, but I will concede congratulations on actually winning a challenge."

"Thanks," Sammy said warily before smirking, "you actually had me for a moment there."

"Zip it!" Chef snapped, now holding four slips of paper. Clearing his throat, he began to read, "Now to the votes, we got one vote for Shawn…"

The named conspiracy nut sighed. "I expected that."

"One vote for Topher…"

The eyebrows of the named aspiring host shot up. "What?!"

"Shut up and let me read the dang votes!" Chef interrupted, looking up from the slips. "One vote for Scarlett…"

Scarlett frowned, narrowing her eyes at the substitute host.

"And the final vote goes to…"

The camera panned over the three endangered campers, from the nervous Shawn, to the worried Topher, and the serious Scarlett before returning to Chef.

"…Topher!"

Gasping in shock, Topher jumped to his feet. "I repeat myself! What?!" He looked around to the other members of the final four. "What happened? This was supposed to be a tie, and we were supposed to do a tiebreaker!"

"That's what I wanted you to think," Scarlett spoke up, now smirking as she stood.

"Come again?" Topher asked, confused.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Sammy added, looking at the redhead.

"I figured out that with the two of you acting as one team," Scarlett explained, gesturing to Shawn and Sammy, "I would be forced to align with Topher and force a tiebreaker. However, given the unpredictability of tiebreakers on this show, I realized I needed a more concrete solution to secure my place in the final three, so I created a new strategy that would ensure that. I had to make sure that nobody caught onto my new plan, so I did as Topher predicted I would, and offered him an alliance."

Topher blinked in shock as Scarlett went on.

"With Topher in a comfortable position and seeing no need to change his strategy, which would've disrupted my own, I sought to change Shawn's target from me to Topher since Samey would probably have refused to listen," she continued.

Shawn gasped, "When you came to me and suggested I vote for Topher instead of you! I thought that you were insane for trying to change my mind, but I actually started to consider it after the thing with the pit!"

Topher winced at the mention of the pit, and exclaimed, "I said I was sorry for using you as a shield!"

"Regardless if you're sorry for that or not, it was still the perfect action to sway Shawn to follow my plan. For that, I thank you," Scarlett remarked, enjoying the frazzled state Topher was in.

"But, but, but…" Topher stammered, his eyes darting around. "This wasn't supposed to happen! You weren't supposed to backstab me! I was going to backstab _you_! I was going to take you to the final three, and backstab you so I could become a Total Drama legend! Could you imagine the kind of ratings that kind of betrayal could've generated?"

Scarlett narrowed her eyes, which eerily glowed red in her scowl. "You were going to _what_?"

Disturbed by the way Scarlett was looking at him, Topher quickly backtracked. "Erm, nothing!" It was at that point Chef held out the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom in a pair of tongs, and Topher flinched away. "Ah, keep that away from me!"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher pounded a fist on the wall of the outhouse. "Augh! I shouldn't have waited until the final three! I should've done it now! Ugh, I can't believe I fell for that alliance offer!" Crossing his arms, he frowned at the camera. "I'm going to get even with her one day. Just watch!"

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Okay, I probably shouldn't have voted for Topher," he admitted while scratching his soul patch, "but with what Scarlett said and him using me as a shield from Chef, she kinda got in my head." He shook it off, and a determined expression formed. "Now that it's just us and her, I'm not going to make that mistake again."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Samey may have won the challenge, but I'm still here at the end of today, so technically I win," Scarlett said confidently while making notes in her notepad. "I really do have to thank Topher for his moment of idiocy helping sway Shawn in my plan's favor. Now I just have to analyze possible final three challenge scenarios, and ultimately decide who will be my opponent in the final two. Shawn's still a greater physical threat, but with how Samey has acted out since Jasmine's elimination and today's victory, she might be an even greater adversary than I originally examined."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"That win was way too close," declared Sammy with a sweep of her arms. "That said and even with Scarlett not voted off yet, winning an individual challenge was kind of nice. I hope I can win the next one, or even the finale, and make sure Scarlett doesn't win!"

* * *

When the static cleared, everyone appeared to be down at the Hurl of Shame. Topher sat in the bucket while Chef stood by it, and behind him the final three stood watching the elimination.

Putting his fists on his hips, Chef grinned, "I've been waiting to be the Hurl Master of this game."

"And you're gonna keep waiting," said Chris' voice. To the surprise of Chef and Topher, Chris descended onto the Dock of Shame via his jetpack.

"Chris!" The final three exclaimed.

"Yup, I'm the Hurl Master around here! You see, Topher, the Hurl of Shame is shameful and painful," Chris said, to the unease of the loser himself. "Right now, I can't think of anything anymore shameful than being hurled by the very person you want to be like."

Frowning at Chris, Topher replied, "You know what, Chris? You're right. That is shameful, and painful too. I do want to be like you, except when I'm host of this show, I'll be a thousand times bet-!"

Before Topher could finish his statement, he was flung into the sky and his voice faded in the distance.

"Chris, good to have you back, man!" Chef proclaimed, walking over to the host with a slice of glowing quiche on a plate. "I even saved you some quiche."

Chris grinned at his assistant host. "Chef, _you_ are the man!" Swiping the slice from the plate, he stuffed it into his mouth in one bite. His cheeks bulged, and he bent down out of the camera's sight, proceeding to puke.

Chef chuckled throughout all the vomiting, "You are the Hurl Master."

Standing upright again and holding his stomach, Chris pushed through his outro. "Who will be hurled next? How much are they going to hurl before we hurl them? When will I stop hurling?" At that point, he ducked out of sight to hurl again before continuing the outro. "Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

The camera zoomed out to show the island in full, and Chris could be heard puking for a third time.

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Topher- 4th**

 **Beardo- 5th**

 **Jasmine- 6th**

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **Apologies for the episode taking so long to crank out, nearly a month since the last one. I've started up what is hopefully my last semester at college, and this episode was giving me troubles in the plot progression department. Hopefully I can get the next one out sooner.**

 **It's with a heavy heart that I had to make Topher leave here. Of the PI fourteen, Topher's been my favorite from day one, and he's third in my overall cast rankings. Back in 2015, I had favoritism issues surrounding him in the first draft of this story, so when I came back to this project in 2017, I attempted to fix that and it led to Topher's current placement.**

 **One of the reasons why I spent so much time trying to get this episode right is because I find Topher's elimination to be really important in the grand scheme of things. His elimination sets up a number of things down the road, and it plays an important part in this episode's flow. In addition, I find Topher being eliminated in this episode highly ironic, considering that this is the one episode of TDRI where Chef hosts instead of Chris, Topher's idol.**

 **The other reason I took so long on this episode is Scarlett's strategy for the episode. Originally, I attempted to write her plot by having her team up with Topher against Sammy and Shawn, and then they'd go into a tiebreaker at the elimination ceremony between whichever two it ended up being based on who won immunity. When it came to the climax, I really struggled to write it, and that led to a realization. Having worked alone since the merge, and generally not being a people person, it wouldn't make sense for someone like Scarlett to team up with someone else at this point, especially with how unpredictable the tiebreakers are because of Chris. It would make more sense for Scarlett to try and devise a strategy that solidified an elimination instead of leaving possibilities uncertain because of an unknown tiebreaker. Having made that realization, I rewrote Scarlett's plot in a way that alluded to my original plan, but also made the new plan in-character for her. Had Topher not made that blunder with Shawn, it might not have worked. Hopefully the whole thing makes sense for everyone.**

 **In regards to the food, it wasn't that hard to decide what everyone would make. Shawn's canonically a good cook, so I gave him Cameron's quiche. Sammy, while having good cooking skills from making whatever food Amy demanded she make, would want something that seemed relatively harmless. By that logic, I gave her Zoey's salad. Scarlett's omelet was borrowed with permission from Fangren's Total Shuffled series because hers was the hardest to come up with, and because the omelet represents her willingness to kill to get ahead. I didn't want to copy all of canon's dishes, so I had Topher make soup to represent the fact he's an okay cook, but would rather make something easy. I also chose what I did because I have no real knowledge of cooking and couldn't do more complex dishes.**

 **Speaking of easy, surprise to all those who thought that Shawn would have an easy win on this challenge! Nope! And as an added bonus, with this challenge's winner, all of the final four have had an individual challenge victory. Oh, and the pit trap that Shawn and Topher fell into? Canon implied that Zoey was the one to set that since Scott didn't. Personally, I think it might've been _Chef_ because the pole was just standing out in the open, and I doubt Chef would let them walk over to it that easily. I meant to include the revelation that Chef set it in the episode, but couldn't find a way to fit it in.**

 **After saying the most I've probably ever said post-episode, review in the box below! Reviews are awesome!**


	12. TDRI Episode 12

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you as always!

 ** **La Rosa Rossa:**** Thank you! And nice new penname!

 **SideshowJazz1:** I do know that tumblr, and may have submitted a few asks to it. Scarlett being all crazy evil wasn't the problem. The problem was Max. He was holding her back with all his shenanigans and irritating her.

 **The Phenomenal Flair:** Yeah, Shawn winning a challenge practically designed for him felt too simple. And yeah, Chris needs to be taken down a peg every now and then. I prefer him hosting than Chef, though. Chef's challenges would all be military or cooking themed; I like Chris and having a variety.

 **Derick Lindsey:** Don't worry, even though it wasn't shown at the ceremony, Sammy will have problems with Shawn's choice soon. She was just in too much shock at the reveal to react at the moment.

 **AnonReviewer:** Surprise! And yes, the fic is being continued. I have a life outside of writing this, and it takes time to write an episode.

 **That British Guy:** Topher wasn't so much as delusional as overconfident.

 **SilentSinger948:** Thank you! Never underestimate someone who gets far. They may surprise you, just like I did.

 **StarHeart Specials:** I don't really ship DJ/Sammy. I was just referencing their relationship in Fangren's Total Shuffled series, and it could also be read as a fan crushing on a celebrity.

 **Joel Connell:** It was a risky plan, but Scarlett did it so there would be a definite elimination instead of risking her place in the game with a tiebreaker. Meh, Chris authorized Chef to host the episode after getting stuck, so I think he'd roll with whoever is in the catapult. Don't worry, I'm still updating. Like I told AnonReviewer, I have a life outside of writing this, such as school and other personal interests.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Interesting finale prediction. We'll have to wait and see who it ends up being at the end of this episode.

 **WhydoyouhateTD:** Thank you for your kind words. The writing style is actually inspired by Fangren, a friend of mine on here. If it weren't for them, my writing style for this story wouldn't be so detailed.

 **Sunset:** No, they did not. You'll find out why in this episode. And no, it wasn't intentional. It just turned out that way.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama. I only own a DVD of season one and a couple TD shirts.

Episode 12- The Enchanted Franken-Forest

"Previously on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, I took some time off for personal reasons I'd rather not discuss," Chris narrated over footage of him getting flung into the communal washrooms by Shawn's trap. "Hey, who edited that in there? Not funny, guys!

"Okay, that's better," Chris continued as the footage showed Chef and the final four at the table where they tried to eat their own dishes and began to vomit. "Chef led the final four players in a revolting cook-off which resulted in Samey upchucking all of her loser-ness. Meanwhile, Topher found himself getting brutally beaten down by Chef despite showing his admiration for the big guy." Clips of Topher getting hit by the frying pan, and then getting shot at by the spaghetti cannon were shown.

"Just when Scarlett thought she had the win locked, Samey took it just out of her reach. In the end, Topher got eliminated thanks to a very strategic plan by Scarlett and his own mistake that earned him Shawn's vote." Sammy was shown winning by grabbing the pole just as Scarlett slid by, and then Topher was shown getting hurled into the night sky. "We're down to three, and- hey!" The footage cut to the clip of Chris getting flung into the washrooms over and over again.

"No, no!" The camera zoomed out to show Chris watching the clip on a monitor on the Dock of Shame. He got out of his deck chair, and shoved the monitor off-screen. "Not funny! That editor is so fired! Eleven players down, three to go, only two will move on to the final round. Who will be left standing? Find out right now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue intro)

* * *

When the show faded back in after the intro, the camera zoomed in on the cabin still standing and cut inside.

Sammy was shown in an extreme close up, sleeping in her bed. She blearily opened her eyes, and yelped, shooting upright when the camera zoomed out to show Scarlett standing at her bedside with a clipboard.

"What're you doing?!" Sammy asked incredulously.

"Analyzing how you slept," Scarlett said, making notes on her clipboard. "I found a number of anomalies dissociated with signs of a positive REM sleep. In other words, you didn't sleep well, and I now have another advantage over you." Smirking, Scarlett left Sammy's bedside, having completed her notes.

Sammy shuddered as Scarlett left her alone.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"As much as I hate to admit it, Scarlett is right. I didn't sleep very well last night," Sammy admitted, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. "But can she blame me? She was watching me while I was sleeping!"

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Finally, after all these challenges, I'm so close to the finale and winning the one million dollar prize," Scarlett said, adjusting her glasses as her confessional began. "With Samey inadequately prepared for the next challenge, and Shawn mistakingly helping my plan, I am guaranteed a place in the final two and no one can stop me!" She began to laugh evilly as the background in the window of the outhouse flashed with lightning.

* * *

The confessional static transitioned to the campgrounds, and zoomed in on the mess hall. A cut inside showed Scarlett sitting alone at the table closest to the kitchen, and she continued to scribble on her clipboard as Chef walked by.

"Here's your breakfast," the burly man said, plopping an egg in a cup on top of Scarlett's clipboard, annoying the genius redhead.

Scarlett eyed the egg. "I was expecting more sustenance given we're expected to compete in the final three challenge, but I suppose it was wrong of me to have such high expectations."

Chef snorted, "I'll show you high expectations…" He lumbered back to the kitchen.

The camera panned to the left, showing Sammy watching the exchange and then she turned to face away from Scarlett and Chef's direction, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"I thought we were voting for Scarlett," she said in a disapproving tone.

Shawn sighed as the camera panned across the table, showing him sitting across from Sammy at the table closest to the window. "Look, I'm sorry. Okay? I let Scarlett get in my head, and I thought she might have a point about Topher."

"You should've told me. I would've talked it over with you."

"I didn't need to talk anything over with you." As he talked, Shawn took his egg out of its cup and examined it closely. "We were never officially in an alliance, and I make my own choices. Before, I might've voted with others if I thought it was best for my game, and that's exactly what I did last time, I voted for what I thought was best for my game."

"Oh, so if it was best for your game to vote me off, you'd do it?" Sammy challenged, daring him to answer. A slam behind her made her bounce a foot in the air off her seat. She looked behind her, and saw Chef slamming an oversized cup on Scarlett's table.

"Here's your high expectations," the man huffed, carrying a tray containing two more oversized cups over to Shawn and Sammy's table.

"Yeah, I would. And don't bother trying to eat your egg, they're beyond hard-boiled." Shawn threw his egg over his shoulder without a care.

The camera followed as the egg bounced against the floor, then the wall beneath the window, the ceiling, and then clonking Chef in the forehead. The man gave a cry as he fell onto his back, and the two oversized cups meant for Shawn and Sammy landed on their table on their sides.

Over at her table, Scarlett couldn't help but laugh at Chef's humiliation, only to have spoken too soon as the egg proceeded to clonk her in the forehead too, forcing her to fall back off her seat. She groaned out of view.

The camera panned over to Shawn and Sammy, and Sammy continued where their conversation left off. "Well, even if it was better for my game to vote you off, I'd still take you over Scarlett." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder presumably at Scarlett. "Voting off my ally after working together with them sounds like something my sister would do."

Shawn shrugged. "If that's what you think is best for your game, do what you gotta do. I intend to do the same."

"Shawn, don't you get it? I wouldn't vote you off," Sammy emphasized, "but Scarlett could target either of us. Make the alliance official, and we both can go to the end. I can make sure Scarlett doesn't win, and you can get to the finale. It's a win-win."

"I would like to win so I can get the money I need to build my dream zombie apocalypse bunker, and if Chris surprises us with a mental challenge instead of a physical one, I'd stand a better chance against you than Scarlett," Shawn said thoughtfully. "Alright, you've got an official alliance."

Sammy smiled brightly, and held up her hand for a high-five. "Anti-Scarlett Alliance?"

"Anti-Scarlett Alliance," Shawn confirmed, giving Sammy the high-five.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Hopefully now that Shawn's in an official alliance with me, he won't let Scarlett get into his head again. With it being two against one, we should have no problem getting her out," Sammy said. She looked around, and started rubbing her arm. "I really hope I didn't just jinx that."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"So, I've gone this whole game without a single solid alliance up until now. Is it necessary? Maybe. But as long as I get one step closer to my dream, I'm fine with it," Shawn said.

* * *

When the static cleared away, the camera showed the sun and then panned down some odd-looking trees until it found Chris standing before the final three next to an oddly-shaped orange plant.

"Finalists, welcome to the Mutant Forest of Terror!" Chris greeted, giving a creepy tone near the end with a spooky wag of his fingers.

The camera briefly cut to show the forest in question, which included spiky plants, giant mushrooms, and some of the mutants the campers had met earlier in the season.

"Oh wow… I'm not sure if I- ah!" Wide-eyed at the sight of the forest, Sammy had taken a couple steps back only for a jet of steam to emerge from the ground she was about to step on and gave way. She gave a little shriek as she started to fall, but Shawn acted quickly, and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Oh yeah, watch your step," Chris added as if he was having an afterthought, the camera showing Sammy just a foot from falling into toxic waste. "Biohazardous sinkhole- they put the mutant in Mutant Forest of Terror."

Sammy sighed in relief as Shawn hauled her out of the hole. "Thanks, Shawn."

Chris gestured to his left. "They're also where Chef gets his Marshmallows of Toxic Loserdom." The camera cut to Chef in his hazmat suit at another sinkhole, using a fishing pole to reel a newly-glowing marshmallow out of it. "One of you gets to eat that tonight."

"Seeing as nobody this season has actually done that, I doubt it," Scarlett remarked.

Not letting Scarlett's comment irritate him, Chris continued speaking. "The challenge- Race through the Mutant Forest to find the elusive Chris-a-lis flower." He took out a notebook with a picture of a flower taped onto it, and held it up for the final three to see. "First person to present it to me wins immunity." As Chris spoke, the flower was shown in a close-up, showing white spikes near its base and its four pink petals near the top.

"Which means they get to pick who goes with them to the finale," Sammy concluded, looking to Shawn with a smile. Shawn nodded in response.

This time, Chris was actually annoyed by the interruption, and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thanks for doing my job, Cheer Squad."

Scarlett walked over to the host, glancing at him flatly. "Once again, you neglect a mental competition for a physical one. Given your intelligence quotient, I shouldn't even be surprised by your inability to create one at this point."

Chris regarded her with an insulted glare. "Scarlett, be a dear and move a step closer."

Shifting her glance between him and the orange plant, she said, "If this specimen of mutated wildlife attempts any form of assault on me, I will not hesitate to reply in kind." She stepped closer to the plant.

It promptly set fire to her skirt, causing her to shriek.

Sammy and Shawn's eyes went wide in the brief cut to their reactions before the camera cut back to Scarlett attempted to swat out the flames. Chef, now out of his hazmat suit, walked over with a fire extinguisher, and sprayed some foam onto Scarlett, putting the fire out.

"Since this could easily give third-degree burns, perhaps it would not be wise to pay it retribution," Scarlett mused, glaring at the plant.

"There's more of those little flamethrower flowers," Chris said, "but the flower you're looking for is attached to a very special plant- a Venus flytrap, or as I like to call him, Larry!"

"Wait, a Venus flytrap? That could actually eat us," Shawn protested.

"I don't know. We're all pretty scrawny," Sammy spoke up, initially frightened but getting bolder by every word. "Maybe if it eats Scarlett, it'll be too full since her head is pretty big."

"Excuse me, but my cranium is of average size even if my intelligence surpasses the assumed brain capacity," Scarlett remarked, walking back over to the other two members of the final three.

Chris soon joined them, and placed himself between Scarlett and the other two. "If you plan on getting the flower, you're going to have to do it without letting yourself get eaten by Larry." He distinctly glanced at Scarlett when he next said, "How's that for a mental challenge?" As Scarlett pursed her lips thoughtfully, Chris continued to explain, "Find Larry, and you find the flower. Oh, and watch your step. Those sinkholes are everywhere."

As if to prove Chris's point, the camera zoomed out to show several sinkholes in the immediate area, including the one Sammy had nearly backed into and a rather large sinkhole in the foreground close to the camera. One of the male interns carrying a boom mic accidentally ran right into the large sinkhole, screaming as he fell in with a splash.

"Wait for it…" Chris said in the background, holding up a finger. The intern soon rose out of the hole, severely mutated. His right arm and the opposite were browned and misshapen, his neck had spots on it, one of his eyes was swollen, and he now had bat wings grown out of his back. "See ya Josh, enjoy your new job in the circus!" As the intern flew away, the camera cut back to Chris and the contestants.

"Um, question?" Shawn raised his hand nervously after having seen that horrifying display. "How are we supposed to find this Larry?" Chris whipped out a sheet of paper, the camera zooming in on it from the other side.

The paper showed a green circle, then a trail leading to a big red 'X'.

"Oh, I see! We each get a map," Sammy said in understanding.

"No, you each get a piece of the map," Chris corrected, pulling the sheet out of the camera's sight. The sound of paper tearing could be heard, and Chris's arms were then shown handing each contestant a piece of the map. "You think printer cartridges grow on trees? You can work together, or you can go it alone."

Chris walked away, and left the final three to discuss. Shawn and Sammy held up their pieces to each other, and the camera shifted to show that they had the first two-thirds of the map.

Scarlett shoved Shawn's head out of her way, saying 'Pardon me', and quickly scanned her eyes over the incomplete map. Shawn and Sammy scowled at her as she then moved away from the pair, looking over her portion of the map. "Ah, I believe I've got it. So long, peons! I sincerely hope you fall into one of those sinkholes." She ran off, cackling to herself.

Once Scarlett was out of earshot, the pair looked at their incomplete map again.

"Okay, so it looks like we're here," Shawn stated, pointing to the green circle on the map. He traced the path with his finger. "As long as we stick to the path, that should bring us pretty close to the flower's location. I'm pretty good at recognizing fauna, so I should be able to guide us the rest of the way from there even without a map."

Sammy smiled as they tucked away their respective map pieces for safe keeping. "Sounds great. Let's get going."

"We just have to watch out for the sinkholes. One wrong move, and we could become zombies," Shawn said, walking ahead.

Sammy shrugged, beginning to follow him. "Watching for the sinkholes should be easy, right? I mean, all we have to do is watch for the jet-!" As Sammy spoke, a steam jet emerged from the ground right in front of her. She shrieked, beginning to fall into a sinkhole. Shawn acted quickly, and once again seized her by the arm. "Phew, thanks! This might be harder than we thought."

"Nobody's becoming a zombie if I have anything to say about it," Shawn replied.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Oh em gee, Shawn saved my life twice already, and the challenge barely even started," Sammy exclaimed, raising her arms up in the air. She sighed, and folded her arms over her chest. "If that's not a sign winning this challenge will be really tough, I don't know what is."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

Scarlett trailed her eyes over her piece of the map before addressing the camera. "Shawn might be a survival expert, but he's not the only one to have studied fauna before coming onto the show. Due to the carnivorous nature of the Venus flytrap, I found it quite interesting." She smiled as she thought back to her studies. "By cross-referencing the mutation effect I've witnessed on this island with my knowledge of a Venus flytrap's natural habitat, I should be able to find this so-called Larry without much trouble."

* * *

Scarlett was shown jogging into the forest, and coming to a stop.

The genius redhead looked around. "I'm seeing lots of potential sources of nitrogen, so this is clearly the wrong location." She glanced at her map piece. "How am I supposed to determine where this place on the map is without a decent vantage point?" She narrowed her eyes, examining her surroundings. "Think, Scarlett, think."

The sound of a fly caught her attention.

The scene cut to a rather giant fly buzzing around ahead on the path. It was circling another one of the fire-breathing plants that had attacked Scarlett. The plant spewed fire, and the fly hovered up to dodge it.

Scarlett blinked, and then grinned. "Excellent."

Further back the trail, Shawn and Sammy walked along, following their map.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Sammy inquired, passing over a steam jet and taking an extra big step to avoid the sinkhole that formed immediately after. "It all looks the same to me."

Shawn nodded. "I'm pretty sure. I'm seeing landmarks around here that I'm seeing on the map." He briefly looked up from the map, and then did a double take. "Uh, what's Scarlett doing?" Sammy stepped up beside him, and they both stared.

The scene cut to Scarlett, who had a vine lasso in her hand and successfully roped the giant fly. "Gotcha." She reeled it in towards her, and glared at it. "Listen, you abomination, take me up so I can get a look at the forest or so help me, I'll make sure that plant fries you pretty good next time."

An expression of fear could be seen in the fly's eyes, and it timidly obeyed her. Scarlett happily let the fly ascend, and kept a firm grip on the lasso as the fly began to carry her up into the air.

As she began to rise above the tree line, Scarlett took out her piece of the map so she could compare what she would see to her map, but the wind from flying made the paper flap about in her hand until it slipped completely.

"No, no!" Scarlett protested, trying to snatch the paper but missing until it was no longer in her range. "No!"

"The last piece of the map!" Shawn pointed, and then smiled. "Finale, here I come!" He ran to catch the paper.

Sammy raised her hand in slight objection. "Um, you mean we, don't you?"

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

Shawn shrugged as he sat in the confessional outhouse. "Sammy's nice and all, but I need that money. Zombie bunkers are expensive to build and stock, especially with the plans I have in mind for mine. We're still a team though, and she doesn't have to worry. Scarlett's as good as gone."

* * *

"Just getting the map might not be good enough," Sammy mused while walking in the direction Shawn went. "We need to stop Scarlett from getting a bird's eye view, or a fly's eye view if they're that big around here."

She heard a familiar bleat, and she looked over her shoulder.

One of the flying goats was at a bush, eating the leaves and branches.

"Hi, mister or missus flying goat," Sammy warily walked up to it, and it paused its eating to look at her. "Remember me? I need a little favor."

Up in the sky, Scarlett had risen high above the trees by this point. The fly was straining its wings to keep Scarlett that high.

Looking down below her, she looked in every direction she could.

"Thankfully, I remember details from the map so I can still try and find that flytrap," Scarlett remarked to herself. "Let's see…" She squinted her eyes in one direction, and then popped them wide-open. "Aha! There! I think I see its habitat!" A bleating sound caught her ear, and she looked behind her. She gasped.

The mutant goat Sammy had talked to flew up to Scarlett's level.

The genius redhead raised a finger, glaring at the animal. "Don't you dare…"

The goat dared. It huffed, and puffed a flame right through the lasso that had Scarlett tethered to her fly.

"Curse you!" Scarlett swore as she rapidly fell out of the sky.

Shawn snatched the third piece, calling out, "Got it!" Putting them together, he stopped to look over the complete product. "Okay, let's see where we're supposed to-" A hiss rang out, and a steam jet emerged right behind him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Shawn flailed, trying to get his balance and not fall to his doom.

Sammy ran towards her alliance partner. "Shawn, I'm coming!" Unfortunately for her, Scarlett fell right on top of her as she was running underneath. "Oof," she grunted as she collapsed onto her belly.

"That insolent goat," Scarlett grumbled, rubbing her head with one hand before peering down on who she had landed on top of. "Oh, how nice. I thank you for breaking my fall, but I must be going now." She swiftly jumped to her feet, running off. She passed Shawn, who was still trying not to fall into the sinkhole. Stopping by him, she snagged the map from his grasp. "And I thank you for retrieving my piece, as well as for handing over the rest of the map."

As Scarlett ran away, Shawn finally fell into the sinkhole, but managed to grab onto the edge. Pulling himself up, he glared in the direction Scarlett had gone.

At that point, Sammy recovered from being used as a landing pad, and started getting up. "Ugh, it felt just like Amy using me to break her fall back home." She looked to the side, and gasped. "Shawn!" Hurrying over to the sinkhole, she grabbed Shawn by the elbow and helped him climb out. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Shawn said, brushing lingering dirt off his body. "We have a bigger problem. Scarlett has the map."

"What?!"

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"I came onto Total Drama to get away from Amy for a couple of days, hopefully even longer if I got far enough," Sammy admitted. "Even though she got onto the show too, she was voted off pretty early and I got a few days away from her anyway. I never thought I'd make it this far, and now that I did, I really want to win- to prove to my sister that I don't always lose, and to avenge Jasmine. If I have to play hardball to get Scarlett out so I can do that, I will!" She concluded her confessional with a pound of her fist down into her open palm.

* * *

Scarlett walked through the forest, holding the map in front of her. "Drat, now where am I?" She stared at the foliage around her, and tried to figure out where it was on the map. "I fear falling from that fly may have disoriented me. With how packed this place is, I can't find a way to tell which way I'm supposed to go." She paused, glancing at the camera recording her. "And I really need to stop talking to myself out loud. I probably look foolish."

Shawn and Sammy walked along the path, and Sammy seemed to be getting the hang of avoiding the steam jets as she took a smooth, extra big step over a jet without breaking her stride. "How are we supposed to find Larry now?"

Stopping near the fire-breathing plant, Shawn gave it a punch to stun it so that they wouldn't be attacked by fire. "From what I know about flytraps, they need places that are poor in nitrogen, like a bog." He blinked in realization. "Come to think of it, I think I remember seeing a bog on the map."

"Great, so can you get us there? And like, quickly enough to beat Scarlett?"

"You bet your head I can. This way!" Shawn pointed over his shoulder, and they ran off to the camera's right.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Have I mentioned that I don't like Venus flytraps?" Shawn asked. "They're like zombie plants. Probably the only good thing about them is that they can't move like human zombies can. Just gotta stay out of their snapping range, and I'm fine."

* * *

Scarlett placed a hand on what looked like moss on the side of a tree, grabbing a fist full of it she pulled her hand back and ran her fingers through the moss. "Feels consistent like moss, but due to the unlimited potential for mutation on this island, there's no way to confirm this is moss that grows on the northern side of trees." Annoyed, she threw the handful of moss to the ground. "Useless."

"Hurry, it should be up here!" Shawn's voice rang out.

Scarlett's eyes went wide, her attention taken away from the moss. The genius redhead dove into the nearest bush, and Shawn and Sammy soon ran by.

"I really hope she didn't get there first," Sammy said as they went.

A moment after they had left the screen, Scarlett poked her head out from the bush, and smirked darkly.

* * *

The scene flashed forward, and Shawn and Sammy were shown walking into the camera's view from the left.

Sammy glanced at Shawn. "I've never been to a bog before. How do we know that we got there?"

Shawn reached his arm out, and grabbed Sammy's upper arm. "Sammy!"

Sammy looked back at him. "Wha-eek!" Her next step forward didn't touch ground, and she nearly fell forward into what looked like the toxic swamp water from the eighth episode of the season. "Whoa, that was close!"

As the camera zoomed out, Shawn declared, "The bog, we're here!" The camera panned across the bog until a large, green plant with what looked like white teeth was shown. The camera then zoomed in on the flower above the white teeth. "There's the flower!"

"Oh em gee, look at Larry," Sammy gasped as the scene cut back closer to Shawn and her. "It's huge!"

A loudspeaker whirred to life, and Chris corrected, "Nope, he's colossal!" The host chuckled as the scene cut to him at the finish line, watching the challenge from a monitor. "Will Shawn and Sammy live long enough to pick that flower? And will Scarlett sneak up from behind and snag the win? Find out when we return on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" The camera faded to black, allowing the show to go to commercials.

* * *

When the show faded back in, Chris was still sitting in his deck chair and looking through what appeared to be a photo album with Chef standing nearby and looking over his shoulder.

"Aw, Larry, he used to be such a sweet little guy," Chris reminisced as the camera viewed pictures from the album, all of which were of Chris and Larry back when the flytrap was small and in a plant pot. Chris pushed the flytrap in a stroller, played ping-pong with it, and then Larry was shown sitting on one of the toxic waste barrels. "Until I left him on the island and kinda forgot about him for a few years while the toxic waste piled up, mutating him into a freakish botanical mistake." The host sniffled, and closed the album. "They grow up so fast…" He started to cry as the camera panned to Chef Hatchet, rolling his eyes at his friend.

* * *

(Confessional- Chef)

Chef crossed his arms, explaining, "I knew coming back to the island would dig up old memories, but crying over a stupid plant? That's just pathetic." The man shook his head.

* * *

Rather than cut back to the bog like expected, the scene instead switched to the mine shaft that the campers escaped out of before Chris sealed it up. A rock shifted on the ground, and the scene zoomed in on it.

A green arm shoved the rock onto its side, revealing a hole in the ground. The green arm grasped the grass outside of the hole, and hauled the rest of its body out into the daylight, revealing Ezekiel.

Ezekiel sighed in relief of finally being out of the mine, as well as somehow alive, and moved the rock back into place before scampering off to who knows where without the camera following him.

* * *

A flash transitioned back to the bog, where Shawn and Sammy were still trying to figure out how they were going to approach the situation.

"How are we supposed to get the flower when it's all the way over there?" Shawn asked, scratching his soul patch in thought.

After a moment of thinking for herself, Sammy pointed at a series of stepping stones leading to Larry, one of them looking different from the others. "Think these stepping stones are safe enough?"

Looking at the stones, Shawn nodded with approval. "That could work. I'll go first." Jumping onto the first one, he hopped from one to the next. Sammy prepared to follow him a few stones behind, but before she could get onto the first one, she heard a cry from Shawn. "What the? Not a stepping stone, not a stepping stone!" Shawn's current stone was shown rising up out of the water, revealing that it was not a stepping stone, but a giant, mutant turtle. Rising on its hind legs, it threw Shawn off with a mighty roar. He shrieked as he flew back to where Sammy was, and crashed on top of her, sending both to the ground.

The conspiracy nut and the cheerleader moaned in pain.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Stepped on a stepping stone, turned out to be a giant mutant turtle," said Shawn, raising his hands to shoulder height in a shrug. "Another lesson for me to be careful where I step. One wrong move could land me in the clutches of the undead."

* * *

Standing on their feet again, the two alliance members stood face-to-face.

"Now how are we going to get the flower? The turtle left too big of a gap to jump," Sammy spoke up.

"We might have to backtrack and go around, but I'm not sure I want to do that when Scarlett could come at any moment."

"And that moment is now," a third voice joined the conversation. Both Shawn and Sammy looked behind them, and saw Scarlett pleasantly walking onto the scene further in the background from them. "I must thank the both of you for guiding me to this location. After falling from the air, I was disoriented until you passed me by. From there, I followed you at a distance. I must say, that was incredibly stupid of you to not assume I would follow you as was attempting to cross those stones without properly checking that they were all indeed as you assumed."

Sammy curled her hands into fists, her back to the camera as she shouted, "Like you could do better!"

"Samey, I am of superior intellect. Of course I can do better. Watch." Turning her attention away from her opponents, Scarlett jumped onto a toxic waste barrel floating in the water, and then a large boulder on the outskirt of the bog. From the boulder, she jumped onto an even larger one, and began to climb it towards a tree further along.

"She's getting closer," stated Sammy as she watched Scarlett advance, and turned to her partner. "What do we do?"

Shawn looked past Sammy, and his pupils shrank. "Um, you might want to turn around."

"Why?" Sammy turned, and she glanced upward. The camera zoomed out to show the turtle that Shawn had stepped on was looming over them.

The turtle roared, and the duo screamed in response.

At the edge of the bog, Scarlett managed to climb up the large rock, and peered over her shoulder at her opponents, laughing. "Peons…"

Sammy and Shawn ran around their ground, trying to avoid swipes from the turtle's claws. As they scrambled to dodge, Shawn tripped on a large stone, and face-planted into the dirt. Lifting up his head, he groaned at the pain he felt in his face. His gaze wandered to the stone he tripped on, and raised an eyebrow.

Unfortunately for Sammy, she was unable to dodge the next swipe, and the turtle managed to grab her. "Ahhh!" She screamed as it lifted her up to its face.

The turtle growled at her, but the growling ceased the moment a large stone clocked it in the face. Reflexively, it dropped Sammy, causing the girl to shriek even more.

Sliding over to where Sammy was going to land, Shawn held out his arms, and caught her safely.

"Oh em gee," Sammy gasped, clinging to her savior. She looked him in the eye. "Thanks, Shawn."

"To be honest, if that had happened on the first day, I might not have done that. Self-preservation and all," Shawn admitted before looking up. "Look out!" He stepped to the side, still holding Sammy, and the turtle's dazed head crashed down where he once stood, its tongue sticking out the side of its mouth.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"I know what I said earlier, but as long as I don't see any risk in helping others, I'll do it." Shawn scratched the back of his head as he added, "And I did promise Jasmine I'd help Sammy so…"

* * *

Now at the tree next to the large boulder, Scarlett struggled to climb up. "I really shouldn't have undervalued practice for climbing situations."

The turtle's head was shown in a close-up, still dazed until Shawn's fist knocked a few times on it. The turtle shook its head, clearing any remaining dizziness, and stared as the camera zoomed out to show Shawn, with Sammy now standing beside him, staring directly back at the turtle.

"Hey, we're really sorry for disturbing you and knocking you out, but could you help us just a little?" Sammy pleaded, holding one hand out with two of her fingers pinched together to emphasize just how little help they were requesting.

The turtle gave them a strange look.

Scarlett dropped down on a tree branch, and the viewpoint switched to over her shoulder, looking down at the intended target surrounded by a circle of white, pointy teeth. "Excellent, now I just need to find a way to lower down to it without attracting attention." She glanced up above her as the camera returned to its normal position. Some vines hung over her head. "These should suffice."

The turtle was now swimming through the bog water, Shawn and Sammy sitting on its back as if they were riding an ungulate.

"A little closer," Sammy told the turtle. "A little more… perfect! Thanks!" The turtle had pulled up to the little island in the bog where Larry was. "Go for it, Shawn!"

"Here goes!" Shawn jumped off the shell, and right next to the flower.

Grasping her tree branch above, Scarlett stared down with a shocked expression. "What?!"

"I'll take that, thank you," Shawn said casually as he reached out to take the flower. The moment his finger touched it, Larry snapped its jaws up around him. Shawn let out a muffled screech.

Sammy gasped. "Shawn!"

Scarlett watched with a narrowed brow, and began tapping her chin, muttering to herself.

"Nobody, not even a plant, is munching my brain today," declared Shawn as several little bulges formed on Larry. After a moment, Larry spit Shawn out, eliciting another screech from the boy. The spit sent Shawn flying back to the end of the bog he and Sammy started from. In a jumbled heap, he laid covered in digestive spit. "Ugh!"

"Shawn, are you okay?" Sammy called.

"Define okay!"

"Sorry," Sammy patted the turtle's shell, getting its attention. "We need to go back for Shawn. You don't mind, do you?"

The turtle rolled its eyes, and started swimming back.

"So this challenge isn't completely lost yet," Scarlett thought out loud. "With them back at square one, I should have time to figure this out." She looked down at Larry. "Larry only closed his mouth when Shawn touched the flower, so it must be attached to some kind of sense receptors. In order to obtain the flower without getting trapped, I need to move fast enough to retrieve it and clear the mouth before it closes…" She looked at the vines she had initially grabbed before Shawn got to the flower. "I suppose that could work…"

Shawn was back on his feet by the time Sammy returned, and was wiping the fluid off of him. He noticed her return, and frowned at her. "What are you doing? Now Scarlett's closest to the flower again."

"I came back for you, and it's not like I'd do any better than you." Sammy got off of the turtle, and it slunk away. "With the way Larry reacted to you, I think we can say that just going to its mouth and plucking the flower like any other one is going to work. We need to try something else."

Shawn hummed for a moment, and then smirked. "I have an idea."

* * *

The scene flashed forward, and Sammy was shown slowly lowering above Larry with a vine wrapped around her midsection. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

The scene panned out, showing the vine was slung over a tree branch, and Shawn was at the other end, slowly letting more and more vine go.

"I'm sure of it. Just grab the flower, and then I'll pull you up as quick as I can."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"I trust Shawn, I do," Sammy said before pausing. "It's just, I'm getting an image of Amy feeding me to a giant mutant Venus flytrap in my head. It seems like something she'd do, and I'm glad that she's not here to actually do it."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"You never want to be close to a life-threatening situation. You want to be long-range from it," Shawn advised. "That and even though we're about the same size, I'm not sure Sammy could pull me up as fast as I could with her."

* * *

The branch the vine was slung over cracked slightly as Sammy descended further.

Sammy whimpered as she got closer to the flower. Even if she was terrified for her life, she reached one hand down towards the flower. "Just a little lower!"

Exercising caution, Shawn lowered her a little more.

The branch cracked further.

"Almost got it…" Sammy strained to reach. Movement caught her eye, and she shouted, "Up! Up, up!"

Shawn pulled sharply, and just in time too because the second Sammy zipped upward, Larry's jaws trembled and snapped shut.

"That was way too close!" Sammy exclaimed, staring down at Larry with horrified eyes.

Shawn grit his teeth as he started lowering Sammy again. "You can do it! Be quick, and don't think about what could happen!"

"I'll try!" Larry opened his jaws again, and lifted the flower up into view. "Okay, lower me down, but a bit quicker this time."

Nodding, Shawn worked quicker in lowering his alliance partner.

"Almost there, almost there," Sammy chanted to herself as she got closer and closer.

"That flower is mine!" Scarlett's voice roared, and Shawn saw the redhead fly by on a vine.

Sammy looked away from the flower. "Scarlett?!" She yelped as Scarlett kicked her in the face, swinging over Larry and snatching the flower with incredible speed.

At that moment, the branch holding up Sammy snapped, and she was sent crashing back into Shawn, much like he had been when he first tried to cross the stepping stones. Larry's jaws crunched together a third time

Scarlett released her vine, and dropped into a roll as she hit ground, cushioning her impact. "Success! Victory is mine!" Cackling, she ran off.

Shawn frowned, watching Scarlett exit while he and Sammy were still down. "You should've acted faster."

Sammy glared at him. "Well, you should've voted Scarlett off last time!" The ground beneath them started to rumble. "What is that?" She and Shawn darted their gazes over to Larry.

To the surprise of both, Larry rose out of the bog, tentacle-like roots protruding from a clump of dirt and grass around his middle. The mutant Venus flytrap let out a roar, and pursued after Scarlett.

They gasped, and exchanged glances. "Forget I screwed up our plan to eliminate Scarlett?"

"Yeah," Sammy agreed, "forget I didn't act fast enough?"

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

Sammy started out her next confessional with her arms folded over her chest. "I'm still mad at Shawn for letting Scarlett trick him into keeping her, but since we're here now, I suppose it would be better if I just let it go. Seeing a giant plant uproot itself and run really makes you think hard about stuff."

* * *

Scarlett jogged through the forest, laughing to herself. "Hahaha, those two were never a match for me to begin with. Once I deliver this flower to Chris, I'll have the most power in this game yet!"

A tentacle lashed out, and grabbed Scarlett, surprising her.

Larry brought the tentacle root back, and held Scarlett upside-down. She glared at the mutant plant. "Release me right now, or so help me, I will kill you with the strongest weed killer I can concoct!" Her threat quickly died when Larry opened his maw to devour her, and she began screaming.

Shawn ran up, and jumped into the air, leaping high enough to snatch the Chris-a-lis from the genius redhead. "Thanks," called Shawn with a smile as he dropped back to the ground and continued his run.

Scarlett stopped screaming when she felt the flower leave her possession, and she scowled, pointing in Shawn's direction. "You ignoramus, get back here with that!" Too preoccupied with demanding Shawn to comply, she didn't notice Larry closing his mouth and he carelessly threw her over whatever he called his shoulder.

While Larry started pursuing Shawn, Scarlett landed head-first into what vaguely looked like a mushroom near one of the fire-breathing flowers encountered earlier, her skirt-covered rear sticking out along with her legs. "Ooh, when I get out of here, that dunce is going to pay for stealing my key to the million dollars!" The flower spewed fire onto Scarlett's backside. "Augh! And so is the flower that's attempting to burn me!" Even though Scarlett couldn't see it, the flower actually recoiled at the threat.

Being several times larger than any human being, Larry caught up to Shawn with ease. The conspiracy nut jumped as Larry lashed a root out to try and grab him. Coming up to Larry's side, Sammy matched pace with the creature. Seeing his alliance partner, Shawn quickly addressed her. "Sammy, catch!" He threw the flower over to her.

"I got it," Sammy replied, catching the flower. Taking her eyes off the flower now that she had it, she squeaked, and jumped just as Shawn did when a root came at her. Slipping between Larry's roots, she managed to trip him up enough to slow him down while she got ahead of him in an attempt to catch up to Shawn.

Raising his arms, Shawn called, "Pass it!"

At the finish line, Chris watched the chase on his monitor with Chef. "Take your time, Samey," the host jeered and began to chuckle. "Larry hasn't had a decent meal since I stopped feeding him three years ago. Poor guy must be famished."

"I'm open!" Shawn waved his arms, but Sammy only continued to run. "Why aren't you throwing it?"

Hesitating, Sammy looked at him as she ran. "I-I don't know if I can. I'm thinking about what you said before, and how can I trust you to take me to the finale?"

"We have an alliance now!"

"So what? You said that you'd do what's best for your game. How do I know you're not just tricking me?" She asked, stopping indignantly

Shawn actually stopped, and reached an arm out. "Sammy!"

"What?" Sammy didn't see it coming. Larry closed his maw around Sammy, though his flower escaped.

Chris chuckled, "You're welcome, Larry!"

Shawn ran over, and caught the flower in his hands. "I got it!" Briefly, he smiled at it before glancing up in terror.

Larry raised his head, and attempted to chew. "Shawn! Scarlett! Anybody, help!" pleaded Sammy.

"Sammy!"

"Shawn, I know you want to win, but please! I need you!"

"But I," protested Shawn, though hesitantly, "but I…"

* * *

" _Thanks for telling me that, you're a real stand-up guy," Jasmine replied, smiling at him. "Even if you do smell and go on tangents about zombies." She chuckled, and then continued, "Do me a favor? Keep an eye on Sammy, will you?"_

 _Shawn held up his hand as if he was swearing an oath. "You have my word."_

* * *

 _Sammy blinked at him. "Oh! Is that all a hot-air balloon needs? Thanks, Shawn! That's really helpful."_

 _Shawn smiled at her. "Just doing what Jasmine asked."_

* * *

 _Sammy held her arms up, covering her face as the statuettes bounced off her balloon. "Hey, watch it! Those could puncture my balloon!"_

 _Shawn frowned, twisting the handlebar of his helicopter. "I've got your back, Samey!" He flew his machine in front of Sammy's balloon, and started navigating it in front of every statuette that came their way, even spinning the helicopter to knock one away._

* * *

" _You're welcome!" Shawn sarcastically hollered, putting a hand to his mouth. Something the camera couldn't see stopped his fall. "Huh?"_

 _The camera zoomed out to show Sammy had one of the goats catch him by the back of his jacket._

" _You're welcome," Sammy giggled, winking at him._

 _Shawn blinked, and then smiled at her. "Thanks, Samey!"_

* * *

 _Shawn nodded. "Yeah, that's a concern of mine too." Stopping again, he held out his hand to signal Sammy to do the same. "Stop! Pit trap." At Sammy's curious look over his shoulder, Shawn stuck out his foot and tapped it against the ground three times until the trap gave way and showed itself. "Ninety-nine percent sure that zombies can't climb, so ya know, hole."_

* * *

 _Sammy sighed in relief as Shawn hauled her out of the hole. "Thanks, Shawn."_

" _Which means they get to pick who goes with them to the finale," Sammy concluded, looking to Shawn with a smile. Shawn nodded in response._

* * *

Shawn frowned, looking down at the flower. "I did promise… and even though I didn't want to get attached to anybody here, I did." He sighed, and dropped the flower. "Hang on, Sammy! I'm coming!" The conspiracy nut ran at Larry, dodged a swinging root and jumped off another, and vaulted himself at Larry's mouth/head with a fighting roar. Larry's mouth/head opened, and Sammy watched with wide eyes as Shawn dove in. Larry immediately closed his mouth once Shawn was inside, and started to bulge as Shawn struggled to fight. "Let us out, you jumbo salad!"

The scene panned to the flower and a pair of brown slippers walked up to it. The camera cut to Scarlett's flat stare as she looked at Larry happily standing in the middle of the path as it contained its meal. "He's a fool for trying to sacrifice his life for someone else." Glancing down at her feet, she picked up the flower. "I'll be taking this back. So long, you overgrown weed." Scarlett took off in the direction of the finish line.

Insulted, Larry growled, and chased her down the path.

"Hurry up! Come on, Larry, she's almost made it," commented Chris, growing more invested in the chase with every moment.

Panting, Scarlett got closer and closer to the finish line. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see Larry catching up as the camera zoomed out to show just how close it was. Larry lashed out a root, and Scarlett jumped, diving over it as the scene slowed down to slow-motion.

The viewpoint switched, showing the centimeters-big gap between Scarlett's body and the root. Then it switched back to regular view and regular speed as Scarlett landed across the finish line at the feet of Chris. The redhead groaned in pain at the hurtful belly slide she had just performed.

"Scarlett for the win!" announced Chris, taking the flower from the winner as she held it up to him. He walked over to Larry, and held it out for his mutant pet. "Larry, buddy, look what I rescued for you."

His flower's return was enough to make Larry happily spit out Shawn and Sammy, the pair yelping in surprise, and bent his head down to suck up the flower back into his mouth. The background music took a creepily cute tune as Chris began to coo, "Who's a good man-eating plant? Larry's a good man-eating plant. Yes you are, yes you are…" The host scratched what was presumably the underside of Larry's chin affectionately, and Larry began to stomp one of his leg roots like a dog.

Now standing on her feet, Scarlett watched the display on the monitor with Chef, and glanced at the man. "I don't even want to begin to analyze how and why it's performing actions akin to a canine." Chef nodded silently in agreement.

The camera panned over to the right of them, showing Shawn and Sammy recovering in a puddle of digestive fluids. Moaning, Shawn got to his feet while rubbing his head with one hand. He noticed Sammy still laying on her back, and leaned over her. "Sammy? Here, let me help you up." The conspiracy nut held out a hand.

Sammy opened her eyes in a close-up, and stared at Shawn smiling at her. She smiled, and accepted the hand, allowing him to help her to her feet. Once she was standing and smiling at him, she threw her arms around his neck, surprising him. After a moment of surprised shock, Shawn smiled back and wrapped his arms around her back in a return hug.

* * *

The scene flashed forward to the campgrounds, where Sammy sat on the steps of the still-standing cabin and Shawn stood in front of her.

"I'm sorry about today," apologized Sammy as the scene zoomed in on them. "If I had just trusted you and thrown the flower, we'd both be going to the finale."

Waving a hand, Shawn shook his head. "Nah, this whole mess is my fault. I screwed up at the last ceremony, and that's what caused you to lose trust in me."

"Thanks for saving me from Larry."

"Jasmine asked me to keep an eye on you. I was just doing what she asked. I don't think she'd be very happy with me if I let you get eaten by a giant plant."

"You really like her, don't you?"

A blush appeared on Shawn's cheeks. "Hehe, she sleeps in trees and is a wilderness survivor? What's there not to like?"

"Maybe after the show is over, we can all hang out together sometime? It'd be nice to hang out with some friends I know Amy can't drive away."

"I've never really been one for hanging out with other people, but you know what? I think I'd be fine with that."

The two shared a smile as the scene flashed another transition.

* * *

Once again, night fell on Camp Wawanakwa for possibly the last time of the season.

"Elimination time," Chris said as the Dock of Shame was shown, panning across the catapult to the final three to Chris and Chef. "Scarlett, by refusing to help save your fellow players from the jaws of a monster…"

Scarlett folded her arms behind her back confidently as she gave her fellow campers a smirk. "The right choice, I may add." Both Shawn and Sammy glared at her in response.

"…You've secured a place in the finale," Chris continued, "and you get to choose your opponent in said finale."

"As expected given I won the challenge," Scarlett remarked, fixing her glasses on her face.

"Who will get the Hurl of Shame?" Chris asked. "Will it be Shawn, who avoided alliances up until today? Or will it be Samey, who got this far despite her sister's insistence she'd be eliminated first?"

"I've given my decision plenty of thought prior to tonight's elimination," Scarlett said, raising a finger. "Shawn has proven to be a physical threat to the competition since early on, and was my intended target after Jasmine's elimination. Although, given Samey's rise in self-confidence and threat during a challenge after said elimination, I've decided that the person I will be eliminating tonight is-"

"Me," Sammy sighed as the camera panned to her from Scarlett's annoyed scowl at being interrupted.

A gasp escaped Shawn's lips. "Sammy…"

"Let's be real, Shawn. I only got so far because I got so much help from you and Jasmine, and Scarlett has a point, I have become more of a threat to her game after Jasmine left. It wouldn't even surprise me that I'm her target now," Sammy admitted, slouching her shoulders in defeat.

Chris spoke up, "Um, Samey? Yeah, that's nice and all, but it's not your choice."

"Thank you, Chris," replied Scarlett, raising her finger again. "Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," she continued while giving Sammy a brief stink-eye. "I've decided that the person I will be eliminating tonight is…"

Shawn and Sammy were shown leaning towards her in anticipation.

Chris and Chef also leaned in, their expressions more neutral than Shawn and Sammy's frantic anticipation.

Scarlett closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and opened her eyes again as she said the name, "Shawn."

"What?!" Two voices shouted as one.

Chef marched by the two incredulous campers, grabbing Shawn by the arm. Briefly glancing over her shoulder, Sammy looked at Scarlett with desperation. "But I've been trying to get rid of you for the past few eliminations, why did you pick Shawn over me?"

"Quite simple, really." A smirk appeared on Scarlett's face. "Shawn's more physically superior to you. His strength could possibly match my intelligence in the final challenge, but you? Even for a cheerleader, your strength is average and you clearly have intelligence nowhere near my level. It was all a matter of eliminating the extreme on the other side of the scale to tip the final challenge in my favor." She fully turned towards her final opponent. "This game is about to end, and the winner is going to be _me_."

The scene cut to Shawn loaded in the Hurl of Shame with Chris at the lever.

"Bon voyage," Chris said to Shawn, "but first- a travel companion to keep you company."

A snarl occurred off-screen, and Chef walked into view, holding a tied-up and growling Ezekiel at arm's length. He set Ezekiel into the bucket next to Shawn as the eliminated camper leaned away from him.

"Hey, this is-!" Shawn tried to say.

"Yep, it's Ezekiel, who looks kinda like a _zombie_ ," Chris said brightly. "This is my way of saying 'thanks' for _flinging me into a pit of poo_!" He glowered, and pulled the lever.

Shawn screeched as he and Ezekiel were flung into the night sky. Ezekiel's snarls continued until they faded along with Shawn's scream as they both disappeared into the distance.

At that point, Chef approached Chris with a familiar box, making Chris raise an eyebrow. "Whoops, looks like he forgot his Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom. Ah well. Chef, dispose of it so it's not dangerous."

Chef sent a worried look towards the camera filming them.

Chris walked back towards the center of the dock to begin his outro. "Well, I for one am relieved. Having Shawn and Samey duke it out for the million would've been boring. I probably would've been fine with Shawn versus Scarlett too, bill it as brains versus brawns or something. This also works, for other reasons." He looked towards the two finalists as the camera zoomed out to include them in the shot.

Sammy nervously rubbed her arm as Scarlett glanced at her with a wicked smile. "I'm going to enjoy this…" Sammy gulped in response, but then she steeled herself and turned to her rival.

"You know what? So am I. I promised Jasmine I would win for her, and I promised to make sure that someone like you wouldn't win. I'm going to fulfill both of those promises, and finally win something for once so Amy can shut up!"

"Yep, just unrelenting, death-defying, academic versus athletic mortal combat next time on the epic final round of Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" Chris concluded as a brief shot of the island at night was shown.

Crickets, possibly mutant crickets, chirped as Chef was shown entering the bonfire area with the box. The cook looked both ways before shrugging and tossing the box into the bonfire pit.

A pan out to the island showed a rather large explosion rise up in the area where the bonfire pit was, and the footage finally faded to black.

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Shawn- 3rd**

 **Topher- 4th**

 **Beardo- 5th**

 **Jasmine- 6th**

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **In my original draft of the story, the finale was going to be Scarlett and Topher. After fixing my favoritism issues, the finale became Scarlett and Sammy, and then stayed that way. When I made my changes, I knew I wanted a girl-girl finale since we never got one in canon, and one should happen at some point. It also makes for a nice parallel to canon when the new cast came in. One new generation gave a boy-boy finale, and the other gave a girl-girl finale.**

 **As evidenced, Shawn voting for Topher instead of Scarlett last time did have repercussions on his teamwork with Sammy, leading her to question trusting him. She actually goes back and forth on trusting him and not trusting him throughout this challenge. They were never formally in an alliance, making Shawn feel as if he did not need to discuss his decisions with Sammy, and he's been working pretty much solo from day one, if only helping others here and there. That said, Shawn's willing to do what he thinks is best for his game, and it seems Jasmine's request was what he needed to grow from a solo survivor to being willing to make sacrifices for the safety of others.**

 **Of course, Shawn couldn't leave without Chris getting payback for his zombie trap slinging him into the washrooms. Much like Scott getting Fang as a ride-along, Shawn received Ezekiel. This idea was foreshadowed in the mine episode, where Shawn likened Ezekiel to a zombie, which he hates, and foreshadowed by Ezekiel's snippet earlier during the challenge. As opposed to canon, where Lightning unwittingly sent him back down into the mine, he was actually able to get out. Aside from Ezekiel being part of Shawn's payback from Chris, I let Ezekiel escape the mine in hopes that by letting him out, he wouldn't develop that toxic spit he has in All-Stars.**

 **Academic versus athletic! How will the fight go? Who will win? Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	13. TDRI Episode 13

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **SideshowJazz1:** You did review Chapter 11. For some reason I missed you in the responses, so I went back and added yours in. Yes, it was the only way to create tension. Interesting thoughts on who should win.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Scarlett just picked who she figured she had less of a chance to beat in the finale. Yeah, Sammy vs Scarlett is going to be quite the event.

 **AnonReviewer:** Yeah, that was part of Scarlett's thought process when selecting her opponent. He did a great job making it as far as he did, and Chris just had to pay him back for the snare trap debacle. I wasn't a fan of what happened to Ezekiel, so this time I made sure he got out instead of falling back in. Funny you should mention Topher versus Scarlett, early on in the story's development, they were the final two before I addressed favoritism issues. The girl versus girl being both Mutant Maggots is not really a coincidence since I'm usually aware of this stuff. Also, we will be getting alternate endings.

 **Killshot Kamikaze:** Congrats for your finale guess being right.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, I wanted to give someone else a shot at winning this time around. Maybe Ezekiel will be cured, or maybe he won't. We'll have to wait and see.

 **Guest:** Someone's enthusiastic.

 **Guest:** Shawn's tough. I don't think Ezekiel would be able to kill him.

 **Derick Lindsey:** I needed Chris give Shawn revenge for that because that's just how he is, and when I realized how much Zeke looks like a zombie, it just seemed like a natural fit. You'll have to wait and see how the finale plays out. I do plan on writing All-Stars before going into Pahkitew Island. Can't make any promises about Sugar, though.

 **That British Guy:** It's okay to miss someone, even if they're going to be gone for one night.

 **Attackin:** Thank you for reading and enjoying. Sorry to hear you don't like Sammy, but I respect your opinion.

 **Joel Connell:** Apologies for the long wait, and I like your predictions that you've made. As a diehard fan of the show, I'll always have hope for a new season.

 **xtremexavier15:** I don't know about that. Everybody may hate Scarlett, but there are some that hate Sammy more.

 **sneak13579:** Interesting thoughts on who will win. Let's see if you're right.

 **sdgeek:** That's why I made the decisions I did for the story. I'll admit the point about the tension. No, Shawn's not going to end up like that. I thought even for someone like Scott, that was pretty cruel. Interesting thoughts about who's going to win. Let's see if you're right. Your predictions for the All-Stars cast are intriguing.

 **Fangren:** It was the best I could do to keep the episode from being boring. Yeah, I came up with Shawn getting hurled with Zeke halfway through the season. We'll have to see if you're right about the winner.

 **CosmicWarrior:** I'd really hope that was a joke, even if it's something you should never joke about. All I can say is, I will be including the alternate ending. It was an interesting thing to do as I've never done that before.

 **Overlord Exor:** I guess we know who you're rooting for.

 **StarHeart Specials:** Nice predictions for the All-Stars cast. A few of them are wrong, and you're one short for the Vultures.

 **Lowland Warrior:** I already responded to your review in a PM.

Alright. With reviews out of the way, let's get to the finale and find out who will be the first winner in Cast Swap.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama. I only own a DVD of season one and a couple TD shirts.

Episode 13- The Ultimate Showdown

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated as a faraway shot of the island was shown before flashing to clips of the contestants encountering Larry. "The final three went hunting for my old friend, Larry the human flytrap!" He let out a chuckle as Sammy and Shawn were shown cowering at the giant plant. "Aww, adorable!

"Sammy and Shawn officially made an alliance after working together through several challenges, but trust issues over the last vote kept them separated." Sammy and Shawn were shown making their alliance, and then were portrayed having various troubles during the challenge. The footage then showed Scarlett crossing the finish line with Larry's flower. "In the end, Scarlett won immunity, and gave Shawn the old heave-hurl with everyone's least favorite freakshow, Ezekiel!

Now only two competitors remain- Sammy and Scarlett, in the ultimate Total Drama showdown!" Scarlett was shown intimidating Sammy, but Sammy gained her courage to stand up against Scarlett and vowed to take her down once and for all.

The past footage finally ended, and Chris and Chef were shown standing on the Dock of Shame. Chris was wearing his light blue tuxedo from the season's second challenge, and Chef wore the pink dress he sometimes wore for season two's Gilded Chris ceremonies. "It's academic versus athletic in a tooth-rattling, ego-bashing, life-threatening battle for a cash prize of one million dollars!" Chris exclaimed, gesturing to Chef.

On the cue, Chef opened the silver briefcase and unveiled the stacks of dollars wadded together. As Chris continued with his theatrics, Chef tried to sneak his hand in the case, only to yelp in pain as he brought up his hand. Two of his fingers were caught in a mousetrap. The man glared at his business partner, who laughed at his misfortune.

"Right here, right now on the epic finale of Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue theme song)

* * *

Once the theme song concluded, the show faded in. The moon was briefly shown high above the island before cutting to the final two walking through the woods.

"I can't believe after all the trouble I've been giving you," Sammy said in utter disbelief, "you still decided to keep me and vote off Shawn."

"And this surprises you how, exactly?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow, looking at her opponent as she came to a stop in the middle of the forest.

Sammy pointed to herself, coming to a stop as well. "I've been more of a threat to you than Shawn was. I'm the one who blew that smoke machine in your face, destroyed your plane, and exposed your invincibility statue. All Shawn did was win one challenge, and I did that too!"

Scarlett nodded. "That you did, and I fully intend on destroying you for that. You're forgetting one thing, though."

"What?"

Scarlett tapped her own head. "I'm intellectually superior to you, and Shawn was physically superior to you." She grabbed Sammy's arm to make her point, and the cheerleader snatched it away while scowling at the touch. "You wouldn't last against either of us in the finale, and that's a fact." Smirking, she shoved Sammy down on her back.

Sammy grunted, sitting upright on the ground and rubbing one hand on her sore back. She frowned angrily as Scarlett continued to walk back to the cabins while cackling maliciously.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Shoving me to the ground, and saying nasty things to me," Sammy thought out loud as she sat on the confessional toilet. She glanced at the camera filming her. "Are we sure that Scarlett isn't just Amy with a wig and fake glasses?" She considered the notion for a moment of silence before waving one hand to dismiss it. "Nah, already saw them both in the same place at one time. Either way, beating her will feel so good!"

The newly familiar sound of Scarlett cackling could be heard faintly outside, and Sammy blinked before giving one of the outhouse walls the stink-eye.

"Shut up and go away, Scarlett!" Sammy shouted.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

Scarlett sat calmly in the confessional. "It amuses me that she thinks she has a chance of winning. Unlike her, I've already started compiling potential finale challenge scenarios." The genius redhead took out her notebook and pencil, and began to look over what she had written down. "For example, if the show is to provide us with an intellectually stimulating finale, which is long overdue might I add, I've memorized a number of events that are sure to come up as-" The faint sound of trumpets being played made her stop her rambling, and look to one side. "What is that infernal racket?"

* * *

Cutting away from Scarlett's confessional, a pair of trumpets bearing flags with Chris's face on them were shown being played.

The camera zoomed out of the close-up on the trumpets to show two interns playing them, the skinny one with braces and the one with long bangs over his eyes, and the final two were standing beside them as Chef, wearing Ancient Rome clothes, wheeled a chariot carrying Chris onto the scene. Like his co-worker, Chris was also wearing robes that appeared to be from Ancient Rome.

Chris raised his arms grandly, proclaiming, "All hail mighty McLean!"

"Believe me, there's nothing mighty about you," Scarlett drawled, staring at Chris with disinterest.

"What's with the costumes?" Sammy asked.

"You'll see," Chris answered cheekily before glancing over his shoulder and raising a hand to his mouth. "Slave, bring me my mystic seeing glass!"

The short, chubby intern rolled the large monitor into view. As he passed Chris and Chef, he blew a raspberry at the host.

Chris frowned sternly at the action. "Hey!" He then thought better of it, and smiled. "You know what? In Ancient Rome, blowing a raspberry was a show of respect."

Scarlett shot him an annoyed look. "No, it wasn't!"

Chris shrugged at her correction. "Anywho, for making it to the finale, you each get thirty seconds to speak to a loved one back home."

"Really?" Sammy gasped at the news, and smiled brightly. Her smile only got wider when the monitor flickered on, and a woman with Sammy's same blonde hair and green eyes appeared on the screen. She appeared to be sitting in a home office, wearing a red jacket and a necklace with two yellow beads. "Mom!"

"Samantha, so good to see you!" The woman clapped her hands together. "Oh, I just knew one of my two girls would make it to the end."

"Thanks, Mom!"

The woman looked at her daughter with sympathy. "And sweetie, I am so sorry I didn't believe you about your sister all these years." She looked at something off-screen. "Looking back, I knew I should've kept a closer eye on her after she claimed you were the one to break aunt Mildred's vase when you both were four, and probably shouldn't have left you with aunt Mildred for more than twenty minutes. Amy must get her behavior from her. She was like that a lot when we were kids."

"Uh, Mom, it's really okay." Sammy stammered, her tone uncertain. "See, I made some friends, and"

Her mother finally looked at the screen again, noticing something Sammy couldn't see. "Oh, looks like my time's just about up. Go and win that money. Love you!" She blew a kiss.

"Mom, wait!" The daughter futilely attempted to reach her arm out, but the feed cut off, making the screen go blank. Sammy sighed sadly.

Scarlett gave a smug smile as she stepped up towards the monitor. "That was interesting to watch. It certainly helps me fill out my psychological profile on you."

"She does love me." Sammy snapped, somewhat defensive, before rubbing one arm like she usually does. "She just doesn't listen to me that much. Amy always grabs her attention first, and she's a single mom. It's been hard for her to raise two kids the same age alone."

"I'm sure." Scarlett looked at the monitor. "Let's get this over with so we can move onto the final challenge."

The screen turned on again, this time showing a young teenage boy with Scarlett's vivid red hair and green eyes. Unlike Scarlett, he didn't wear glasses. He wore a blue hoodie, and he seemed to have bags under his eyes.

"You don't deserve to win!" The boy immediately shouted, making Sammy jump at the sudden volume spike.

Scarlett didn't even seem fazed by the vindication. "Jack, where is Mother or Father?"

"We drew straws. I wanted a re-try, but they said no." Jack answered, huffing as he crossed his arms. "Dad made up some excuse to go to the store, and Mom is outside watering the flowers. I didn't want to do this, but they needed someone to talk with you for the Messages from Home segment if you got this far."

"Nice to know everyone wants to talk you me," Scarlett quipped sarcastically. "The cowards." She shrugged her shoulders. "What does it matter? I honestly would've preferred skipping this, had I known it would be happening."

"Me too, but here we are!" Jack rolled his eyes. "You should just give up now. Even if you win that money, no college in the country is going to want you after they see how much of a psycho you are."

"I doubt that the college of my choice is going to care about reality television appearances."

"They should before they even think of accepting you," Jack snapped. "If you lose, don't even try to take it out on me when you get home. I'm done." The feed cut, and the screen once more became blank.

"Good riddance," Scarlett sneered.

"Wow, he seemed really ticked off." Sammy commented meekly, showing cautious curiosity. "What did you do to him?"

Scarlett sniffed indifferently. "Nothing that concerns you."

Chris chuckled. "Cold. Save that icy attitude for the challenge."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"When I win, I'll be using the money to fund my studies at the college of my choice. With my impressing academic record, I doubt any educational institution will pass up the chance to have me ranked among their top students," Scarlett explained with her hands folded in her lap. "After that, it's time to move onto the next step of my future."

* * *

When the static cut back to the finalists, they were next shown riding along with Chris in his chariot. "So, where are we going for the final challenge?" Sammy spoke up with a hesitant smile. "The Bay of Dismay? Mount Looming Tragedy? I'm really okay with anywhere except the mine."

Chris shook his head. "Nah." Spreading his arms wide, he got concerned looks from the two finalists. "Somewhere way more dangerous, for the most painful Total Drama finale ever!" He pointed ahead. "Ladies, behold, the Chrisisseum!"

Sammy and Scarlett both gasped as the camera cut to their destination. A fanfare began to play as a makeshift stadium was shown. The walls and arches were made out of wood, and the entrance appeared to be held up by stacks of waste barrels and was topped with the wing of the former Total Drama Jumbo Jet that bore Chris's picture on it while he was wearing his aviator costume.

The scene flashed to inside the stadium, where Chris sat on an equally makeshift throne. The two interns blowing the trumpets before were doing the same thing again. After a few moments of them playing, Chris got annoyed, and leaned over to turn off a previously unseen stereo. Once he turned that off, the interns' trumpet playing sounded more like they were blowing raspberries. Saddened that their moment of grandeur was over, the two interns lowered their instruments.

"Finalists," Chris announced as he rose from his seat, "say 'what's up' to your cheering sections!" The camera panned down to below his viewing box, where all twelve of the eliminated campers sat. "From the Mutant Maggots," the camera zoomed in on the top row and panned from left to right, "Topher! Jasmine!" The wannabe host shot a finger pistol at the finalists and winked to the camera while the explorer tipped her hat in greeting. "Rodney! Amy!" The country boy shyly waved to Sammy and Scarlett as the mean twin, still covered in black spots of varying sizes, scrunched her eyes shut and childishly stuck her tongue out. "And Max!" The wannabe villain turned up his nose at the finalists.

"And from the Toxic Rats," the host introduced as the camera cut to the left side of the bottom row and began to pan across, "Shawn! Sugar!" The conspiracy nut, wearing a sling and an arm cast, cordially waved with his good arm while the pageant queen blew kisses. Noticeably, Sugar had Fang's tooth tucked into her bun. "Sky! Dave!" The gymnast glared at Sugar before looking at the person on her other side with concern. The neat freak sat dejectedly in his seat, not even looking up as the camera passed over him. "Ella! Leonard!" The singer waved kindly as the role-player gave a flick of his stick wand. "And Beardo!" The human soundboard shrugged, giving a smile.

"Go, Sammy!" "Scarlett!" "Yeah, you got this!" Various campers cheered.

Sammy raised her hands to her chest, touched by the cheers she was receiving. "Aw, thanks you guys!"

"I never really needed the support, but I'll take it regardless of how pointless I feel it is," Scarlett dismissed, tucking her hands behind her back.

"Shawn, are you okay?" Sammy pointed up at the conspiracy nut.

Shawn waved off her concern. "Just got scuffed up a little when I got hurled with Zeke. Nothing serious."

"Your arm is in a cast! How is that not serious?" Sky objected.

Sugar raised her hand to ask a question. "Hey, Chris, do we haveta cheer for one of these two mud pies?" She glanced down at the finalists. "No offense to y'all, but I don't like either of you." Sammy frowned at the comment, a bit hurt, and Scarlett merely rolled her eyes.

"Yeah! You both suck," Amy snapped, "it should be me down there and not Samey!"

Max crossed his arms in protest. "Evil does not cheer for backstabbing sidekicks, or at all."

"Oh, I think you'll cheer," Chris answered, taking on that tone everyone recognized as his 'horrible, possibly life-endangering twist' tone. "Otherwise, I'll be forced to unleash… him!" Raising a remote, he pressed the button on it. Down at the lowest tier of the peanut gallery, the eliminated players all gasped in shock as a familiar form rose up into view. It was none other than the land-walking shark himself, Fang, who was chained to some hidden post in the stands.

"You again?" Sugar spoke up, scowling at the growling shark and putting her hands on her hips. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Chris smiled at the panicked campers' reactions. "Other than Sugar's, any questions?"

Max rolled his eyes. "…Go, former sidekick."

For a moment, Scarlett blinked, and then she let a smug smirk slide onto her features.

Chris stood from his throne. "On with the main event," he declared, "the final challenge of the season is a one-on-one Gladiator Battle Royale! But first, you'll need to use your imaginations to make armor and weapons in a challenge I like to call 'Make It or Break It'! You'll need tools and materials to build your armor and weapons, and we've got them right here." He gestured to the arena, making Sammy and Scarlett look behind them.

A little pile sat in the middle of the arena, including a fire extinguisher, a magnifying glass, tape, several nails, a few wrenches, a bowling ball, a hammer, a mallet, and oddly enough, a dead fish.

"Why is there a fish? Who would use a fish?" Sammy inquired from offscreen.

"Probably an idiot," Scarlett answered as the camera panned over to them. "I will say though that the blowtorch could be potentially useful."

"But wait," Chris's voice brought the finalists' attention back to him. "That's not all. Oh, Chef!"

The peanut gallery gasped as the sound of a helicopter approaching got clearer and louder. The camera cut to Chef piloting a helicopter that was carrying a slimy dumpster over the arena. Hovering in place, Chef had the dumpster unload its contents. Out of the dumpster came several trash cans, trash bags, a refrigerator, old pots and pans, planks of wood, somehow a boat, and various other odds and ends. Sammy and Scarlett groaned at the smelly, massive pile of junk.

Chris saluted to Chef, signaling the dumpster had been emptied. "Thank you, Chef!" The assistant host got the message, and flew the helicopter and the dumpster away.

"You have fifteen minutes to collect useful pieces of crud from Mount Junkmore, and assemble your arsenal," Chris explained as the girls looked up at him once more. "But watch your step- I may have loaded the dumpster with a bunch of booby traps." The host began to chuckle as uncertain looks passed between the girls about the implications of his warning. "And…" he snapped his fingers, cuing the intern closest to the stereo to turn on some music. When she clicked the stereo on, a jaunty tune similar to the one from the Newfoundland episode from World Tour played. Realizing the error, the intern quickly rewound the tape and then pressed the play button again. Once the correct, more ominous tune started playing, she sent an awkward smile to her boss, who glared at her ruining the moment before composing himself. "Go!"

Almost immediately, Scarlett whirled around and shoved Sammy to the ground before running towards the junk. "Out of my way!"

The peanut gallery began to cheer for their preferred finalist as Scarlett was shown reaching the pile first and picking up a metal table. Once she lifted it up, she was sprayed in the face by a green gas. The ex-campers grimaced at the spray to the face.

"Ugh! Stink bomb? How juvenile!" Trying to put the smell out of her mind, Scarlett took the table and ran with it to the other side of the stadium.

"Grab that blowtorch! You can do lots of evil damage with that," Max advised to his former cohort in a dismissive tone. He didn't really want to support Scarlett, but considering the two alternatives, he'd rather cheer for the eviler of the finalists. "And make sure you get your circuitry right!"

Amy sneered at him. "What do you expect her to even build?"

"Being a former sidekick of mine, I'd hope she would build a weapon capable of great destruction. But whatever it ends up being, it'll probably be better than anything that simpleton could come up with." He pointed at Sammy for emphasis.

Down at the junk pile, Sammy picked up a mannequin leg. She shuddered as she discovered what it was. "Ew! Fight with a fake leg? That's all sorts of creepy." The good twin threw the leg away, and continued to rummage for supplies. "Hey! A bat!" She managed to pick out a large, wooden bat.

Amy blinked at her sister, and then stared with bored, half-lidded eyes. "Oh yeah, she's doomed."

Sammy ran over to an unclaimed patch of ground in the stadium, and dropped off her bat. "Okay, that's a weapon. Now I need some armor." Looking back at the pile, she homed in on something at the bottom. "Like that hazmat suit!" Running over, Sammy struggled to pull it out, only to be blown back by a small explosion.

Up in the stands, Jasmine winced while Sugar cackled gleefully at Sammy's pain.

On the bright side, the explosion released the suit. Her face darkened by the explosion, Sammy moaned her pain.

Scarlett poked her head up from within the rubble, and huffed, "You're only embarrassing yourself. Just surrender the victory and the million dollars to me, and I might give you a small portion of the money as compensation."

Snapping herself out of her daze, Sammy glared at her opponent. "Not happening! I came too far just to give up now."

The redheaded villain shrugged. "Suit yourself." Snatching the blowtorch, she turned to leave the pile and get back to building her armor, but tripped and yelped in pain after suffering a faceplant.

While Scarlett picked herself up, Sammy spotted something else that she could potentially use. "A fire extinguisher!"

Scarlett returned to the pile, this time dragging a washing machine out of the pile. While she attempted to drag the cumbersome appliance, she failed to notice it was tipping over too far until it landed hatch upwards on her foot. "Gah! You-!" Her swear was bleeped out, and she struggled to lift it off her foot.

Up on his throne, Chris chuckled, "Those big parts are almost as good as the booby traps."

Topher called out, "Get something good! Scarlett's got a blowtorch, you know!"

Rodney looked between his hands. "Scarlett, or Samey?" He flung them up, and clutched his head. "Gah! I can't decide who I should root for."

Sammy picked up a garbage bag. "This could work… but I need something to cut with. Like a spike!" She scooped up a small spike that seemed to have come from the back of the mutant beavers.

Her hands just off-screen working on her armor, Scarlett drilled something down and then took a hammer and pounded something else. The footage cut to Sammy putting her hands to her neck, and then she used the spike to cut material from the trash bag she had selected.

"This might just be the grossest thing I ever wear," Sammy murmured to herself.

Using the blowtorch, Scarlett welded her armor and then held up what looked like a leaf blower. The evil redhead looked up at a nearby mannequin with one leg, and then shot a tennis ball out of the leaf blower. The ball flew with such speed it took off one of the mannequin's arms. The footage cut back to Sammy, who was putting on the hazmat suit and tying a knot of what looked like the trash bag around her neck.

Soon the ominous music from the stereo ended, and the intern turned it off.

"And time is up," Chris declared, standing from his throne. "Finalists, take your positions for the ultimate Total Drama showdown! Last woman standing wins one million dollars!"

The high-heeled boots of Sammy were revealed first. The camera proceeded to pan up as Sammy was shown decked out in the hazmat suit, with a belt of odds and ends around her waist and a cape made of trash bag material around her neck. In her hands, she grasped the bat she had picked out and the fire extinguisher.

"Yeah, Sammy!" "Looking great!" "Show Scarlett what you're made of!"

A determined frown on her face, Sammy said, "Let's get this over with." Holstering the bat the same way someone would a small gun or sheath a sword, she lifted her now free hand up and pulled the hazmat's hood over her face. The sun briefly glinted off the suit's face window.

"She actually looks kind of cool, like a superhero," Beardo spoke up, surprised just like the rest of the peanut gallery.

"Or a mysterious wizard from the realm of Boglog," Leonard added.

Ella raised her hand. "I'm confused though, what's Scarlett doing standing out there without any armor?"

Ella was right. The camera panned between Scarlett's legs, showing the suited-up Sammy from the redhead's perspective.

"Ella's got a point," Sammy agreed, her voice a bit echoed by her suit. "Did you just make weapons and no armor?"

Shaking her head like a bemused professor, Scarlett lifted one hand to her glasses. However, she didn't fix them like everyone figured she would. She took them off, and raised her other hand to her bun, pulling off the band that helped keep its shape. "I assure you. I made armor along with weapons, and it's armor you'll never be able to beat!" Cackling like a maniac, she pulled out a small remote and pressed the single button on it. Behind her, the washing machine she had hauled out of the junk pile began to rise.

The camera cut to Sammy gasping underneath her hood, then to the peanut gallery gasping, and then to Chris's throne, where the interns seemed to panic and dive behind it. Even Chris was slightly baffled by what was happening.

On a patch of unoccupied ground, a large wooden leg stomped into view, followed by a leg attached to a waste barrel. A metal arm with a trash can at the end rose into view, and then an arm attached to the leaf blower Scarlett had tested was shown. Then the washing machine, now with Scarlett seated inside at a control panel, stood at its full height. For a height comparison, it was twice as tall as Jasmine.

"Last chance. Surrender to my victory, or I will crush you into the ground," Scarlett threatened. The amalgam machine whirred as Scarlett made it move to show it could.

Max, Amy, and Sugar all cheered while the rest of the peanut gallery remained speechless at how Scarlett could assemble such a machine and in such a short span of time.

Chris scrunched his face, examining Scarlett's side skeptically. "Um, Scarlett? I don't think that's armor."

"Actually, it is," Scarlett stated smugly from within the machine. "Armor is defined as anything that covers the body from harm. This does that, and the leaf blower and trash can are loaded so they may be classified as weapons. This all falls under your rules for the challenge. Should you disagree, I would be very happy to argue the matter with you in court once the season is over."

Chris frowned, looking at his two interns peeking out from behind the throne. They both gave him nods, and then he waved a hand. "Fine. I'll allow it." Standing from his throne once again, he announced, "The ultimate battle bru-tal! Find out when we return on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

The footage faded on a far view of the island from the lake.

* * *

When the show returned, dark clouds rolled in, perfectly setting the scene for the surely dramatic final battle about to take place.

"Don't give up, Sammy!" "Squish her!" "You got this!"

"It's the final challenge of the season," Chris explained, slightly happier than he had been before the break. "A gladiator battle to end all gladiator battles, or the way it's looking now, a superhero-supervillain battle to end all superhero-supervillain battles."

Panning to the finalists, Sammy smirked underneath her hood. "That wasn't a smart idea, you know. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and all that."

"You think you're so clever. I'm a certified genius, you pathetic little fool," sneered Scarlett.

"Yeah, but even geniuses make mistakes. I mean, look at you."

Chris narrowed his eyes even though he was thoroughly enjoying the banter. "I believe I was speaking. Save the trash talk for the battle.

"Oh," he added, "and in grand Total Drama tradition, there are going to be a few obstacles to deal with, which I will release into the ring whenever I feel like it."

Inside her mech, Scarlett smirked. "Feel free to add as many obstacles as you'd like, I doubt they're going to be a problem for me. I can't say the same for Samey, though."

Sammy bristled irritably, and then she looked up to Chris again.

"The match ends when one gladiator pins the other for three seconds," the host continued to explain.

"Three seconds? It's going to take me more than three seconds just to get her down," Sammy griped, gesturing at Scarlett with a gloved hand.

"What can I say, all my inventions are built to last," quipped Scarlett, who shrugged nonchalantly at her opponent's complaint.

"And…" Chris raised a hand and then swept it down. "Go!"

Scarlett's smirk grew into a wicked grin. "I'm going to enjoy this. Hahaha!" She pressed a button on her control panel, and the leaf blower arm rose. It whirred to life, and then fired three tennis balls.

Moving fast, Sammy dropped her extinguisher while simultaneously un-holstering her bat and proceeded to swing her weapon to protect herself. She managed to swat away the first two balls in quick succession, but the third one hit the side of her head. Thankfully, the suit cushioned a bit of the impact so she wasn't too stunned. "Ow!" She yelped regardless, and momentarily raised one hand to where the ball had hit. She squeaked frightfully when a loaded garbage bag bowled her over.

As interesting as the fight was to watch, Chris felt he needed to turn up the challenge a notch. "I think it's time for an encounter of the mutant kind." Raising another remote similar to his first, he pressed a button. "Finalists, take your positions for the ultimate Total Drama showdown!"

Chris's announcement gave Sammy enough time to return to her feet, and both combatants were shown looking to one side of the colosseum, where a section of the wall rose up. Appearing from behind the wall was none other than the mutant beetle from the third episode, and this time one of its forelegs was in a boxing glove. It spewed fire in Scarlett's direction, making the genius direct her mech to retreat back a few paces, and then socked Sammy in the face.

The punch sent Sammy reeling back against a wall, and she recovered moments later to find the beetle had her cornered. She screamed in fright as it screeched its threat.

Scarlett lumbered her robot up behind them, and laughed to herself. "At this rate, I won't need to do anything. That insect will do all the work for me."

The majority of the peanut gallery started shouting encouraging words and other cheers for Sammy to make a comeback. At last, Dave decided to interject. "You might as well give up while you can. Your situation is looking pretty hopeless."

Sky gawked at him. "Why would you even say that? She came all this way, and you want her to just give up?"

"Life is nothing but full of disappointment," replied Dave, looking away from the fight and down into his lap. "Just like my heart."

The beetle kept giving Sammy punch after punch, blow after blow, and she grunted in pain each time. Aching all over, she finally had enough. Scrunching her eyes shut, she found the strength to lift up the bat she was still holding. "Why don't you go pick on somebody else?!" She swung with all her might, and the resulting force was enough to send the beetle flying straight into Scarlett's mech.

As it grappled for a part of the machine to hold, Scarlett roared, "Hey! Get off my armor!" Her hands went to pressing buttons and flipping levers.

Having a moment to catch her breath, Sammy noticed how she had managed to get the beetle to cover Scarlett's viewing hole. Watching Scarlett struggle with the beetle, who had begun to pound on her armor, Sammy let her sight drift over to the fire extinguisher she had previously dropped. While Scarlett was distracted, she ran between the mech's legs and lowered into a feet-first slide, snatching the extinguisher as she glided by.

"I will not repeat myself. Get off!" Scarlett snarled, and thrust a final lever.

Outside her mech, the leaf blower arm twisted and fired a tennis ball at the beetle. The beetle chirped painfully as it soared out of the arena.

Able to see again, Scarlett sighed in relief. "Finally." Adjusting her controls, she attempted to look around. "Now where's that little whelp? Why, you!" She growled as her viewing hole was covered with fire extinguisher foam.

Back on her feet, Sammy taunted as she sprayed the foam, "You can't fight what you can't see!"

"We'll see about that," the evil genius challenged, flicking a switch.

Sammy's smile disappeared when she noticed the trash can arm aiming right at her. "Uh oh. Eek!" She dove out of the way as a pair of trash bags shot where she was standing.

"Hahaha! Yes, obliterate her!" Max cackled, while Amy and Sugar cheered for Scarlett. Sammy's friends all shouted and yelled various supporting words.

At one point, Sammy managed to return a ball back at Scarlett, knocking against the mech and dazing Scarlett briefly.

"Yawn," Chris remarked in a bored tone. With Scarlett somewhat blinded and Sammy just dodging her enemy's projectiles, he thought things needed to get interesting again. He clicked his remote.

A mechanical hole in the middle of the stadium opened, and the tentacled alligator from the eighth episode appeared beside Scarlett's mech and Sammy. Scarlett's mech seemed to detect the alligator's presence because it turned towards the creature just like Sammy did. The alligator let out a roar, making both of them go stiff.

Acting quickly, Sammy ducked behind one of the robot's legs. No later than when she did, the alligator wrapped its tentacles around the arms and legs of Scarlett's and pulled it close. Sammy let out a gasp and a helpless hand. "Scarlett!"

"Oh my! I can't watch!" Ella cried, hiding her eyes in her hands.

Chris leaned down from his level of the audience. "You really should. The ratings on this are going to be crazy."

The alligator proceeded to chew off the trash can arm, which fell to the ground, and then attempted to bite the washing machine head, which Scarlett was of course inside of.

"My armor has taken heavy damage," Scarlett murmured to herself, the washing machine rumbling around her as the alligator tried to gnaw on it. "I have no choice. If I want the rest to remain, I need to make a necessary sacrifice. Disconnecting the left leg- emergency yellow!" She pounded a green button with her fist.

The alligator stopped trying to bite off the washing machine when it noticed that the waste barrel leg was struggling against its tentacle. Matching the alligator in power, the leg lifted up so it was parallel to the ground, and detached from the mech at a speed equal to a rabbit fleeing its burrow. The alligator was forced to release the rest of the mech from its other tentacles, being shoved back by the barrel leg until it crashed through the wall of the colosseum. The peanut gallery grimaced at the loud and painful crash, feeling sympathetic to the creature even though it had been a menace to them during their stay.

Scarlett panted heavily. "Good riddance to that… what? Nonono!" Her brief moment of relief came to an end as her mech began to tilt backwards.

From the outside, the robot was shown to be unbalanced without the barrel leg or the trash can arm attached. It tilted to its right, and thudded loudly as its side collided down into the dirt. Most of the peanut gallery breathed in shock in a brief cut back to them.

Shoving the window open, Scarlett crawled out, moaning at her disorientation. Sammy came over, standing a few feet away from the monstrous construction. She lowered the hood of her suit, and asked, "Are you going to be the one that surrenders?"

After Sammy asked the question, Scarlett managed to catch her breath and scowled at her opponent. "Never!" Sending a glance up at her creation, the villainess jumped up onto the machine's side and took hold of the leaf blower/tennis ball launcher. "It will be you who falls!" She fired off the remaining rounds left in the launcher.

Shrieking unexpectedly, Sammy raised her bat to hit back as many as she could. Two balls she had the misfortune of hitting at just enough of an awkward angle to send flying towards the peanut gallery. One ball hit the chain restraining Fang. Chris dropped his remote, and dove for cover along with his interns. The other ball hit the remote, and broke the remote from the sheer force.

Cautiously, Chris glanced at the remote's remains as he ran over. "Uh oh…"

The hole that the alligator had risen from opened again, and instead of just one mutant, this time every mutant that the cast had encountered during the season came up into view- the mutant gophers, Larry, a couple mutant beavers, the tree squid, the laser squirrels, and the giant turtle. They howled as one, and the intensity was enough to make both finalists and the entirety of the peanut gallery scream.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Larry!" The conspiracy nut cried out.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"The mutant gophers!" The human soundboard, his legs curled up against his chest, panicked.

* * *

(Confessional- Amy)

The bad twin scoffed, sitting with her arms and legs crossed in the outhouse. "You know, I'm actually glad I left so early. All of those animals are freaks!"

* * *

One of the laser squirrels caught sight of the peanut gallery, and started firing beams at them. Everyone started screaming, and fled for their safety, including Fang. The land shark looked like he was about to start attacking people, but changed his mind when he saw the beams coming. Sugar was quick to scoop up Leonard in her arms as she jumped away while Sky grabbed Dave by the arm and pulled him out of the target range.

Beardo started blaring a siren as he ran to avoid the beams, and miraculously managed to avoid his afro getting an unwanted haircut.

Sugar attempted to carry Leonard out of the stadium, but their path was intercepted by Fang, who went right back to what he was about to do before the beams struck. "For corn's sake! What do you even want from us?" She demanded, Leonard grimacing in fright.

The shark growled, showing off his teeth and pointing to the open gap.

"You want the tooth?" Sugar looked up to her bun. "This whole time, that's what you've been going on about? My brother whines over less."

"My maiden," Leonard spoke up cautiously, "maybe you should just give the orca warrior his tooth back. It's not required for any vital potions or spells."

"No way! Finders keepers, losers weepers; that's the rule." She dropped Leonard without any tact, and rubbed her arms as if she were rolling up sleeves of a longer shirt. "He wants to tussle for it? We'll tussle." With a holler, she charged off-screen and Leonard popped back up into view, watching with concern.

* * *

Scarlett continued to fire tennis balls at Sammy, who did her best to swing back at every one she could. Hearing the commotion, Sammy momentarily looked over her shoulder before returning her attention to her opponent. "Look what you did! Now everybody's in danger."

The evil redhead shrugged. "Not my concern. Besides, it's partially your fault too." She attempted to use the ball launcher again, but it clicked. "Empty already? Now how am I supposed to defend myself?"

"How about with your own strength?" Scarlett looked up at the answer, and Sammy was shown dropping her bat in favor of getting a running start and then leaping into a front flip, then another before vaulting into the air with a leg extended out in a flying kick. The genius gasped as Sammy's foot collided with her gut, forcing her off her fallen mech. The camera jostled, signaling an off-screen crash before cutting to a fallen Scarlett with Sammy on top of her. "H-hey? I actually pinned her. Hey Chris, I- oof!"

While the cheerleader tried to call for Chris, Scarlett recovered from the kick's blow and used her own legs to push Sammy off of her. As she sat up, she spotted the large mallet she had used for constructing her machine.

* * *

Chris was the only one remaining in the throne section of the peanut gallery. The interns had already run away, and now the host found himself surrounded by a quartet of the mutant gophers. "The biohazardous waste was Chef's idea," he tried to defend, "if you want to chew someone's face off, chew his. HELP!" He curled into a fetal position, covering his precious head with his hands.

Just as the gophers moved in closer, a giant root smacked them out of the area. The host peeked one eye open, and saw that Larry, his mutant flower pet, was standing on the empty peanut gallery seats and roared in defense of his master.

Seeing that he was once again safe, the host smiled as he pointed up at his pet. "That's extra fertilizer for you tonight." Larry responded by lowering his head and cuddling Chris. "Aww… now get out there and terrorize some loser contestants!"

The giant plant raised his head, nodding at the command. "Hey, Larry," Topher's voice called. The plant gurgled at his name being called. Topher was shown standing below the peanut gallery, and he pointed a finger at something. "That turtle thinks you're a disgrace to the McLean family name!" Larry snarled at the comment and looked in the direction indicated by the boy.

"Somebody get this cursed creature off of me!" Max shouted in a close-up of his pained face. The footage zoomed out to show Beardo trying to pull him out from under the giant turtle while the creature didn't particularly seem to notice or care. One of Larry's roots curled into a fist, and it slugged the turtle in the back, freeing Max in the process.

* * *

"Dear kind tree squid," Ella sang, "please let go of my friend. I would be so delighted that you did." She and Rodney were shown next, the latter being held captive by the tree squid and punched in the nards. "We merely want to flee. We promise that once we leave, it'll just be you and your lovely tree." The song seemed to have the desired effect. As Ella's song went on, the squid's punches slowed and eventually stopped altogether. It made a strange warble, closing its only eye happily, and released Rodney to the ground.

The large farm boy groaned, collapsing onto his stomach, and Ella knelt down to check on him. "Are you alright?" She touched a hand to his face, and he got a faraway look in his eye.

"I-I am now…" Rodney stammered, his cheeks flushing red.

* * *

Amy tried to run out of the stadium, but a laser squirrel got in her path. She stomped her heeled boot. "Beat it, freak. I'm trying to save my life here!" The squirrel fired beams at her, and she raised her arms to protect her face. The beams hit the black spots on her hands and wrists and ricocheted off, and Amy lowered them. "Huh?" The squirrel fired off another round, and this time Amy managed to catch sight of the black spots deflecting the beams. "What do you know? These things are good for something." A sinister grin formed on her face, and she looked down at the rodent. The squirrel, clearly not expecting this, winced while waiting for a reaction.

A cut later, Amy was holding the squirrel by the neck. "Go be a rat to someone else." The bad twin punted it back towards the center of the stadium.

Meanwhile, Sky and Dave found themselves in the same position that Rodney was in during the Mad Skills Obstacle Course. "Please, you guys don't really want to eat us. We taste bad," Sky pleaded to the one holding her captive and the other holding Dave and a ketchup bottle.

"In more ways than one," Dave lamented, resigned to his fate.

Before the beavers could start coating the two campers in ketchup, the laser squirrel landed between them. The beavers flinched as the squirrel grew angry again, and scampered away while dropping their captives. Sky was quick to take advantage of their luck, and escorted Dave, who was shocked in other ways, away from the scene.

The squirrel made to fire beams at the retreating pair, but it was cut off by a large, blue body flattening it. The camera zoomed out to show Fang, beaten and bruised with his tail twisted around his body and several more teeth lost.

"Boom! You just got sugar'd!" Sugar proclaimed, walking over with Leonard beside her. There were rips in her top and her jeans, and the tooth that was once in her bun was no longer there.

Leonard smiled fondly at the girl. "Most impressive, my lady. You'd be an inspiration to my whole kingdom."

"Um, duh? Sugar's an inspiration to everybody," Sugar boasted. A roar rang out, and the pair's attention turned towards the roar's source.

Jasmine was shown with a lasso, swinging it around. "Alright, that's enough out of you." She swung the lasso upwards, and the camera zoomed out to show she was standing on the chunk of earth that acted as Larry's middle. The lasso was shown circling around Larry's mouth and cinching it shut.

"I couldn't agree more." Shawn was then shown running underneath Larry's middle, dodging as the mutant plant tried to grab him with his roots. Some of the roots got into a tangle, and Shawn slid under one last root that got tied up in the mess, taking care not to slide on his side with his cast-wrapped arm. Once he was out from under the creature, he stood up and looked above.

Jasmine tugged at the end of her lasso, and then jumped down from Larry's middle. On the way down, she grasped one of Larry's side roots and tied the loose end of her rope to it. "Good luck getting out of this, mate!" She dropped down from the root upon completion, and joined Shawn in examining her handiwork.

Unable to open his mouth, Larry hopped around on his remaining untangled roots, either trying to unwind his twisted roots or trying to balance himself. It was hard to tell.

* * *

Using their bat and mallet respectively, Sammy and Scarlett attempted to swing at each other. Not many of the moves made contact, with both girls managing to dodge when either of them swung, and the moves that did make contact were when they managed to block a swing with their weapon.

"I will not allow you to win over me," Scarlett snarled as they blocked each other once more. "I have worked too hard to make it this far, only for you to ruin everything I've worked for!"

Sammy brought her weapon back, as did her opponent. "Just because you worked hard, doesn't mean you deserve to win. Not after all the underhanded stuff you did."

"It does mean I deserve to win." Scarlett swung for Sammy's legs, only for the cheerleader to jump over it. "In case you've forgotten, this is a game about greed. It's virtually impossible to win without doing something underhanded."

Sammy repositioned her grip on her bat, preparing her next strike as she and Scarlett circled around each other. "That might be the case, but as long as people like you and my sister have a chance at winning, I'll do my best to stop you."

With a battle cry, Sammy swung her bat from one side, aiming for Scarlett's middle. Tilting her mallet, Scarlett blocked the blow. Apparently anticipating this, Sammy raised one of her legs and kicked out, hitting Scarlett in the stomach.

The evil redhead let out a sharp gasp of short breath, staggering back as she dropped her mallet. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted her opponent lift her bat back into swinging position. She gnashed her teeth together.

A muffled noise caught Sammy's attention, and the good twin looked up. She breathed in softly.

The camera, positioned over her shoulder, pointed upward at the unbalanced Larry, who was tipping over as if he were about to…

"That million dollars will be mine!"

Sammy turned her attention back to Scarlett, and removed a hand from her weapon to reach out. "Scarlett, watch out!"

The girl ignored the warning, and sprinted at Sammy. The cheerleader braced herself for the impact, her shoulders tense.

Just as Scarlett, arms outstretched, was about to reach her, a large bulbous plant head crashed down on top of her.

A small cloud of dirt drifted upwards upon contact. Everybody that had been watching inhaled swiftly.

For a moment, the stadium was silent. Then the atmosphere was broken by-

"Scarlett! Everybody, quick! Help me with this!" Sammy dashed over, dropping her bat and struggling to lift the very tip of Larry's head. Most of the other contestants, excluding Max and Amy, took Larry's head in their hands and lifted up.

Together, their combined strength was enough to raise the plant's head up. The camera zoomed in to show Scarlett unconscious underneath. When she came into view, Sammy let go and reached under to grab her by her hands, dragging her out from Larry's shadow.

"Sammy, quick," Jasmine advised, "pin her."

Beardo nodded his head. "Yeah, finish the challenge!"

Sammy bit her lip, and then reluctantly set Scarlett back on the ground, draping herself over the body.

"One!" Several campers counted. "Two! Three!"

A hesitant smile formed on Sammy's face when they began to cheer, the crowned victor looking up at her co-stars.

"She's done it," declared Chris. He and Chef arrived on-camera, the latter pulling the former in the chariot once more. The others dropped Larry's head, and walked over to surround their winner. "Samey has done it! Samey has won Total Drama: Revenge of the Island and the million dollar grand prize!"

Sammy was hoisted up by the hands of Jasmine, Shawn, and even Topher against a bright yellow backdrop.

"Wow! I did it! I really did it," Sammy stated, almost in disbelief at herself.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Originally, I came onto the show to get away from Amy," Sammy recalled in her last confessional for the season. "But once I got here, I ended up doing so much more. I made friends, I survived an island full of dangerous animals, and actually won a million dollars. Even though Amy ended up coming along for the ride, this has been one of the best experiences of my life. Oh, and Scarlett, I guess I was more of a match for you than either of us thought." She smirked proudly, and winked to the camera recording her.

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"This is impossible!" Scarlett raged, her hair still flowing down her back and her glasses still off her face. "I analyzed all the data I gathered, and built my most sophisticated invention that I've ever completed in fifteen minutes, but I still lost to that-that air-headed, academically-subpar cheerleader!" She sneered at the camera recording her. "I assure you all; I will have my revenge, and she will wish she hadn't crossed me!"

* * *

The footage went static, and when it returned, the camera showed Chef at the helm of a speedboat loaded with a bitter Scarlett and all the previously eliminated contestants. The camera panned over to the center of the dock, where Chris and Sammy were standing, with Chris holding the case in his hands.

"Congratulations, Samey- er Sammy!" The host amended upon seeing her frown crossly at him. "To the victor go the spoils- one million dollars in cold, hard cash!" He flicked the case open, and showed off the stacks of wadded green money. Then he clicked it back shut, and handed it to the winner.

Sammy accepted the case, and then bent over slightly at the weight. "Oh, uh, thanks! Huh, so that's what holding a million dollars is like." Chris watched her stumble her way over to the waiting boat with a stunned look on his face, clearly expecting her to be able to lift it easier than that.

The footage cut to Sammy arriving at the dock's edge, and she managed to heft the case a bit higher, becoming a bit more upright in the process. "Thanks for all your support too, guys. This has been great."

"So, whatcha going to spend that money on anyhow?" Sugar asked, arching a brow at her. "You could probably order everything off the menu at Darwin's Food Safari dozens of times over."

"While food is a necessity," Shawn spoke up, raising his good hand as he spoke, "I recommend that she put some of that money towards preparing for the zombie apocalypse. It'd be a good idea to invest in security measures and apocalypse training."

Sammy put down her case, and shrugged. "I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do with the money." She looked up in thought. "Though, with what Jasmine's told me about Australia, I wouldn't mind planning a trip there. After that, I'm open to ideas." A smile on her face, she looked meaningfully to the others for suggestions. They all got the hint, and began to cheer.

"A spinoff series starring me," Topher suggested, beaming at the thought.

Sky pumped her fist in the air. "Or, some great gymnastic equipment!"

"Wrong," Max interjected, "she should use that money to advertise Max's Little Minions Babysitting Service!" The wannabe villain cackled for a few seconds until he noticed that everybody had gone strangely silent. He looked around at the strange looks he was receiving from everyone, including Sammy, who had just got onto the boat with her case. "What? Building world conquest devices is expensive."

At that point, Chef started up the boat and began pulling away from the dock.

Chris began to speak as the camera cut to him. "Well, that's it for another season." Chef and the campers passed him, causing him to get a mischievous look in his eyes. "Except for one last surprise I hid on their boat.

"First rule of show biz- always go out with a bang." He pulled out another remote while the boat got further out into the lake. The moment he pressed the remote, the section of dock he was standing on exploded underneath him, sending him flying into the water with a startled, "Waghaha!"

The campers happened to see this, and they all cheered at Chris getting long-awaited karma for everything he had done to them the past few weeks.

Chris emerged, spitting out water and trying to make sense of how his prank backfired. He met a long distance gaze with Chef, who smirked at him, and it all clicked. He raised a fist and shook it. "Chef!" Regaining his composure, he addressed the camera and the audience. "Until next time, I'm Chris McLean and this has been Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" While he made his outro, the audience was treated to final clips of the mutant forest, the bog, and the sealed mine.

When the scene returned to the host, a voice called out, "You're busted, McLean!"

Chris turned sharply. "Huh? For what?"

The scene zoomed out to show several people in hazmat suits surrounding the host on the dock. "Creating an environmental disaster, that's what!" Several helicopters arrived over the island. "Residents of Wawanakwa, your island is now under government protection. You are hereby quarantined. Prepare for heavy scrub decontamination."

The campers could be seen further out on the lake, cheering at the sound of Chris painfully being scrubbed clean of any toxic residue.

Then the footage faded to black for the final credits of the season.

* * *

 **(Alternate Ending)**

"It does mean I deserve to win." Scarlett swung for Sammy's legs, only for the cheerleader to jump over it. "In case you've forgotten, this is a game about greed. It's virtually impossible to win without doing something underhanded."

Sammy repositioned her grip on her bat, preparing her next strike as she and Scarlett circled around each other. "That might be the case, but as long as people like you and my sister have a chance at winning, I'll do my best to stop you."

With a battle cry, Sammy swung her bat from one side, aiming for Scarlett's middle. Tilting her mallet, Scarlett blocked the blow. With Sammy occupied, Scarlett raised one of her legs and kicked out, hitting Sammy in the stomach.

The good twin let out a sharp gasp of short breath, staggering back as she dropped her bat. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted her opponent lift her mallet back into swinging position. A heavy frown formed on her lips.

A muffled noise caught Scarlett's attention, and the evil redhead looked up. She raised an eyebrow.

The camera, positioned over her shoulder, pointed upward at the unbalanced Larry, who was tipping over as if he were about to…

"This is for my friends!"

Scarlett turned her attention back to Sammy, and lowered her weapon comfortably. "You may want to brace for impact."

The girl had started to sprint at Scarlett, but stopped when she heard the warning. She looked at her opponent in confusion, and then in the direction her opponent was looking.

She gasped and turned, covering her head with her arms. When she started to scream, a large bulbous plant head crashed down on top of her.

A small cloud of dirt drifted upwards upon contact. Everybody that had been watching inhaled swiftly.

For a moment, the stadium was silent. Then the atmosphere was broken by-

"Sammy! Everybody, quick! Help me with this!" Jasmine dashed over and grasped the very tip of Larry's head. Most of the other contestants, excluding Max and Amy, took Larry's head in their hands and lifted up.

Together, their combined strength was enough to raise the plant's head up. The camera zoomed in to show Sammy unconscious underneath. When she came into view, Shawn let go and reached under to grab her by her hands, dragging her out from Larry's shadow.

"Hurry up and pin her already," Amy snapped from where she and Max were standing.

Max nodded. "Yeah, pin her before she wakes up."

Scarlett shoved Shawn aside, causing him to yelp in pain out of shot, and draped herself over the body.

"One!" Chris began to count, to the shock of several campers. "Two! Three!"

A wicked smile formed on Scarlett's face when Chris finished the count, the crowned victor looking up at her co-stars.

"She's done it," declared Chris. He and Chef arrived on-camera, the latter pulling the former in the chariot once more. The others dropped Larry's head, and walked over to surround their winner. "Scarlett has done it! Scarlett has won Total Drama: Revenge of the Island and the million dollar grand prize!"

Dave sighed in dismay while most of the others groaned. "This whole season is just full of disappointments."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"Just as I expected," Scarlett stated as she gave a flick of her flowing hair in her last confessional of the season, her glasses still absent from her face. "It goes to show even in physical situations, mental capacity can prevail. Now that I've secured my victory, I have many more avenues for my future available to me than there already were."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

Sammy sighed, slouched over in her seat. "Wow, even when I beat Amy, I still come in second place." Taking a deep breath, she curled her legs up onto the outhouse seat. "But you know what? I made some great friends and had one of the best experiences of my life. Even Amy can't take those away from me."

* * *

The footage went static, and when it returned, the camera showed Chef at the helm of a speedboat loaded with a saddened Sammy and all the previously eliminated contestants. The camera panned over to the center of the dock, where Chris and Scarlett were standing, with Chris holding the case in his hands.

"Congratulations, Scarlett! To the victor go the spoils- one million dollars in cold, hard cash!" He flicked the case open, and showed off the stacks of wadded green money. Then he clicked it back shut, and handed it to the winner.

Scarlett accepted the case, and then bent over slightly at the weight. "Thank you very much. This will go far towards my plans." Chris watched her stumble her way over to the waiting boat with a stunned look on his face, clearly expecting her to be able to lift it easier than that.

The footage cut to Scarlett arriving at the dock's edge, and she managed to heft the case a bit higher, becoming a bit more upright in the process.

"So, what are you going to do with the money?" Ella asked, her hand intertwined with that of a blushing Rodney's. "I think it would be splendid if you used it to fund a musical."

Beardo gave Ella's suggestion a thumbs-up. "I would be down for helping with music arrangements. It's not that different from sound mixing, I think."

Scarlett stepped onto the boat with the case. "Please. I wouldn't waste my money on such a triviality. This money is being invested so that even when I earn a scholarship to the college of my choice with my academic achievements, I'm still very well-funded so that I may study comfortably."

Sammy shrugged awkwardly. "I guess since you won and all, you can spend it however you want."

"Of course."

Beside her, Max snorted. "School. Such a waste of time." She responded by smacking him on the head with her case, sending him to the floor. "Ow!"

At that point, Chef started up the boat and began pulling away from the dock, the now ex-campers all staring down at the fallen Max.

Chris began to speak as the camera cut to him. "Well, that's it for another season." Chef and the campers passed him, causing him to get a mischievous look in his eyes. "Except for one last surprise I hid on their boat.

"First rule of show biz- always go out with a bang." He pulled out another remote while the boat got further out into the lake. The moment he pressed the remote, the section of dock he was standing on exploded underneath him, sending him flying into the water with a startled, "Waghaha!"

The campers happened to see this, and they all cheered at Chris getting long-awaited karma for everything he had done to them the past few weeks.

Chris emerged, spitting out water and trying to make sense of how his prank backfired. He met a long distance gaze with Chef, who smirked at him, and it all clicked. He raised a fist and shook it. "Chef!" Regaining his composure, he addressed the camera and the audience. "Until next time, I'm Chris McLean and this has been Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" While he made his outro, the audience was treated to final clips of the mutant forest, the bog, and the sealed mine.

When the scene returned to the host, a voice called out, "You're busted, McLean!"

Chris turned sharply. "Huh? For what?"

The scene zoomed out to show several people in hazmat suits surrounding the host on the dock. "Creating an environmental disaster, that's what!" Several helicopters arrived over the island. "Residents of Wawanakwa, your island is now under government protection. You are hereby quarantined. Prepare for heavy scrub decontamination."

The campers could be seen further out on the lake, cheering at the sound of Chris painfully being scrubbed clean of any toxic residue.

Then the footage faded to black for the final credits of the season.

* * *

 **Sammy- 1st**

 **Scarlett- 2nd**

 **Shawn- 3rd**

 **Topher- 4th**

 **Beardo- 5th**

 **Jasmine- 6th**

 **Sky- 7th**

 **Sugar- 8th**

 **Dave- 9th**

 **Rodney- 10th**

 **Max- 11th**

 **Ella- 12th**

 **Amy- 13th**

 **Leonard- 14th**

 **It's official. Sammy has won the Cast Swap edition of Revenge of the Island, and Scarlett is the runner-up.**

 **I am not an expert on writing action sequences, so for the longest time since the last update, I had no idea how to write this final battle between Sammy and Scarlett. Once I figured out the theme of super villain and super hero, I had a direction to work towards. Scarlett was a homage to the typical super villain who controls giant machines in the final battle, and Sammy was the masked super hero with no powers and some gadgets. I knew I wanted Scarlett to enter Scarlett Fever mode, and the giant robot was a good way to lead into that. Most of the design comes from the robot Max built in the Pahkitew Island intro, but with some minor modifications in the arms.**

 **I've never written an alternate ending before, so finding the point of divergence was interesting to figure out in the process. I've written AUs before, but writing alternate endings within an AU was a strange experience. It was all a matter of where they were standing when Larry fell and who gave the final kick to the stomach.**

 **Unlike the ROTI cast, the PI cast had several more people willing to fight the mutants when they entered the stadium. Defeating the mutants wrapped up most, if not all the loose ends to certain plot threads. Sugar got to fight Fang again about the tooth after getting eliminated halfway through the season; Rodney may have found a girlfriend after all the girl issues he had (and for clarification, he and Ella end up together in both endings); and Amy's mutation actually has a bizarre effect.**

 **For the family members, I chose the twins' mother because based on dialogue from canon, I think she might be the only immediate family they have. I chose Scarlett's brother specifically because of what she claims to have done to him, and wanted to show how horrible she can be and contrast Sammy's warm message with a cold one.**

 **I think that covers everything for Revenge of the Island. Next up will be All-Stars, and I will be posting it in the same story because it's part of the overall theme. I've done some last-minute plot arrangement, and have started writing the first episode. Thank you for waiting patiently the last few months. I'll do my best to have the first episode of All-Stars out much sooner.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	14. TDAS Episode 1

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you as always!

 **Mistress Mysterious:** I see someone enjoyed ROTI's winner.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Let's see if your hopes have been answered.

 **N8han11:** High praise. I feel like both Sammy and Scarlett's canon potential was squandered by Amy and Max weighing them down. Interesting parallel you noted too.

 **AnonBrowser:** Yeah, an Amy-centric plot for Sammy could've been avoided in canon, but I think Topher and Max enjoyed Amy's nasty behavior for different reasons and Rodney was already crushing on her at the time, so she had the swing of the votes. I came up with Rodney and Ella as a couple years ago; Ella is an easy-going person, and Rodney getting together with a girl who's more likely to return his feelings was a way to resolve his character arc. Their pairing is supposed to be a reference to Disney's habit of princesses falling in love with less than royal princes (Aladdin, Flynn, Kristoff, etc). We'll have to see if your roster is correct.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Thank you!

 **Cosmic Warrior:** Even so, never joke about that sort of thing.

 **StarHeart Specials:** I'm glad the finale was worth the wait. Also, it's not that hard to do better than this season than canon, all things considered.

 **Xtremexavier15:** Thank you!

 **Killshot Kamikaze:** Look no further!

 **The British Guy:** That's fair.

 **Joel Connell:** Let this be a lesson to Scarlett, never underestimate anybody. They might surprise you. I can't make promises, but I will strive to do better with Sundae Muddy Sundae.

 **Fangren:** Thank you for your critical responses to decisions I've made. I'll keep those in mind going forward. I suppose Scarlett letting down her hair later would've been good for dramatic effect, and I didn't have any ideas how to put Sammy's costume into play other than cosmetic effect. I also understand your issue with the point-of-divergence. That's a fair point. Thank you for enjoying everything else, though.

 **SilentSinger948:** Glad you enjoyed the winner.

 **Great Idea Alert:** Interesting guesses on the All-Stars cast. We'll have to see if you're right. I think I won't do a big epilogue about what everyone's up to in the future because I want my readers to feel free to have their own assumptions about what happens later on. I also won't be having Chris be replaced by Don. As much of a jerk Chris is, Total Drama wouldn't be the same without him. I also ask that you please stop insisting that someone 'lay down the law' with Sierra. She's capable of change on her own. In the end of World Tour, she accepted that Cody didn't love her and that they could be friends first.

Alright, with reviews out of the way, let's start Total Drama All-Stars!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one and some Total Drama shirts.

Episode 1- Heroes vs Villains

The first thing shown was the hand of Chef Hatchet holding a manila envelope as the man himself walked down a hallway lined with bars.

"I'm innocent, I tell you! Innocent!" Someone yelled as the camera pulled back to show Chef being guided down a prison hall by an officer. Paper airplanes and other items were thrown around as the two men walked. Chef briefly eyed a pair of inmates they passed, one of which made a kissy face that unnerved him.

"The Crusty Cockroaches have a big lead over the Soiled Stinkbugs!" The familiar voice of Chris McLean rang out, swiftly followed by a shout of 'Cram it, McLean!' from someone else. Chef's eyes darted around the hall, trying to figure out who was snapping at his co-worker.

He eventually came to a private cell with a transparent door. The cell housed Chris himself, who was serving out a sentence for his environmental damage from the toxic waste of the previous season in a prison orange jumpsuit. His cell was surprisingly well-furnished. Along with the typical bunk bed and toilet of normal prison cells, the cell also contained a portrait of Camp Wawanakwa from an aerial view and a shelf where bobbleheads of Chris and Chef sat.

"Shawn slips past Duncan! The heat is on!" Chris declared, looking at something on the floor. "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about." Briefly shown on the floor was a cockroach and a stinkbug. Chef's shadow appeared over them, attracting the attention of the imprisoned host. "Well, well, well… look who finally decided to come visit me after a whole year." The look on Chris's face told that he was quite miffed at his supposed best friend not visiting sooner.

"Come on. You finished your sentence for dumping toxic waste," said Chef in an attempt to calm him.

Chris shrugged dismissively. "Whatever. I think I'll stay here. I've got everything I need right here, including Chef 2.0. I made him from a cashew." He held up a cashew which remarkably resembled the shape of Chef's head and had the man's face drawn on it.

Ignoring the poor attempt at replacing him, Chef slid the envelope he had been carrying through the slot in Chris's door. "What's this?" Chris took the envelope to examine.

"Your contract," Chef explained, "the producers have greenlit another season. So, you in?" He asked with a grin.

Chris went wide-eyed with glee, and immediately responded, "It is on!"

(cue intro)

* * *

After the intro was finished, Chris was shown standing on the repaired Dock of Shame in his civilian clothes. "Welcome to Total Drama All-Stars," the host greeted. "After my involuntary year-long 'vacation', I really need to be in a familiar environment surrounded by the people I love… to hurt." He gave a chuckle at that before explaining, "It's a condition of my parole- except for the hurt part. That's all McLean." Chris walked over to one end of the dock, where the infamous Drama Machine from the Celebrity Manhunt show sat by with the case containing the season's prize money in claw. "So, I'm bringing back fourteen TD All-Stars to battle it out in the most dangerous, death-defying, one million dollar competition ever!"

The machine held up the case, and opened it to show off the grand prize. A strong breeze started to pass through, making a few stray dollars flutter out.

"Here they are now," Chris said, his hair flapping in his face. The camera zoomed out to show an old military-style helicopter hovering onto the scene and creating the breeze. "From Revenge of the Island, say hello to conspiracy crazy Shawn!"

The side door of the helicopter opened, revealing the survivalist with his formerly injured arm no longer in a cast. He seemed to hesitate, but Chef shoved him out.

"It's not a conspiracy!" Shawn shouted as he fell towards the lake.

"The giant from the land down under, Jasmine!"

Jasmine stood in the helicopter door, glaring at Chef inside. "Watch where you're shoving!" She grabbed her hat with one hand, and jumped out. Sammy slid into view, looking down at her friend that had just jumped.

"Jasmine's bestie with a meanie for a twinnie, Samey!"

Her concern for her friend briefly faded, and she jabbed a finger down in Chris's direction. "I thought we went over this! My name is Sam-eep!" She was kicked in the rear by Chef to get her off the helicopter.

"The big ball of hair himself, Beardo!"

"Can't we just arrive on the island normally for once?" Beardo asked before sighing. He jumped while making the long whistle sound effect used for long drops.

"Phone-stealing wannabe star, Topher!"

Topher was carried by the collar of his shirt to the door by Chef. "Put me down! I need a classy entrance." The boy protested indignantly, and Chef dropped him over the water.

"Vile villainess, Scarlett!"

Scarlett's hair was back in a bun, and she was once again wearing her glasses. "I would just like to point out that this is unnecessary," she said as Chef threw her out.

"Pageant pounder, Sugar!"

The pageant queen physically struggled against Chef trying to push her out the door. "You can't do this to me. My make-up ain't the fancy waterproof kind!" She eventually lost the fight, and screamed upon being thrown out.

Chris chuckled at Sugar's expense. "And from our original cast- emotional goth boyfriend stealer, Gwen!"

Gwen pounded and kicked at Chef when he carried her to the door and flung her out. "They weren't dating at the time!"

"Scrawny computer geek, Cody!"

"Oh come on," Cody griped, falling through the air. "Not again!"

"Broody bad boy, Duncan!"

Duncan scoffed at the host while falling. "Bring it on!"

"Devious diva, Heather!"

"I hate Chris!" Heather announced her disdain for the man immediately, following Duncan.

"Total Drama's number one stalker- uh blogger, Sierra!"

"Yay! Camp, here I come!" Sierra giggled excitedly, waving her arms to show her enthusiasm like her cheer hadn't already done so. Her hair had grown back enough in the past year for her to put it into a short ponytail that was only a fraction of the length it was in her original season.

"Owen, Total Drama's champion of chewing!"

At the door of the helicopter, Owen guffawed, "Another season at one of my favorite places of all time? I love this game!" With an eager smile, the chubby young man belly flopped down into the lake.

His diving formation seemed to horrify everyone already in the lake, including a certain pageant queen with make-up running down her face, and they quickly tried to swim out of his landing range. It was all for naught; the lovable lug's splash ended up being so big that Chris and the robot could see it very clearly from the dock.

"And feral freakshow, Ezekiel!" Chris concluded.

Chef stood at the door again with rips in his clothes, holding a swiping and snarling Ezekiel at arm's length. At Chris's cue, he released the malnourished camper from his grip. The assembled group down below gasped in horror at Ezekiel's descent.

Ezekiel smiled maliciously while he fell, but growled in confusion when a plunger tied with some rope at the end stuck to him and reeled him in.

"Just kidding," joked Chris, revealing that the Drama Machine was the one reeling Ezekiel in. "No way is that guy coming back again." With a snap of his fingers, the Drama Machine fired Ezekiel away from the lake like a cannon. Ezekiel snarled as he disappeared into the distance. "Ah, it's great to be back."

* * *

A flash forward transitioned to Chris and the robot meeting the cast on the beach, all of them exhausted and soaked from the swim to shore. Some of them coughed to relieve water from their lungs.

Chris greeted them all with his trademark smile. "Greetings, old friends!"

Standing on her feet, Heather somehow coughed up a starfish and then threw it away. "I am not your friend."

Sierra walked over, a knowing smile on her lips and her hands on her hips. "Aw, somebody's missing her true love."

"Who? Alejandro? As if!" The original antagonist shoved her former teammate to the ground. "I'm glad that he isn't back. That handsome jerk…"

While Heather vented, Gwen went over to Chris. "Uh, I think I made it explicitly clear that I didn't want to come back unless Courtney was going to, and she isn't even here." Her expression made it very clear that she was not pleased with the mentioned girl's absence.

Beardo added, walking into the shot, "And don't get me wrong. I'm glad to have a second chance with the game and all, but wouldn't have Dave or Sky made better choices than me? They made a lot more drama than I did."

"You all came back because you were the most willing," answered Chris. "Courtney cited that her stress levels were way too high and that coming back wouldn't be good for her health. I did try to get both Dave and Sky back so we could continue their story of broken hearts, but Dave flat out refused and was too depressed to play anyway, and Sky's had too many problems at home she couldn't leave."

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

The goth girl sighed. "I only came back so I could apologize to Courtney. I'm pretty sure she blocked my number or changed hers, and she keeps avoiding me. I thought this would be the only way to talk to her since we'd be forced to look face-to-face."

* * *

"Now that everybody's had a moment to catch their breath," Chris continued, "I'm pleased to announce all the big changes we've made for this season. For starters, the island is now 100% toxic waste free."

"Are you sure about that?" Shawn spoke up, and the camera pulled back to show the cast sitting in odd groups on some rocks in a semi-circle. "Because I heard toxic waste is really hard to clean up…"

Chris held his hands up in a placating gesture. "I assure you. The island is completely clean. In other good news, I've updated your accommodations." He walked away from the group and towards the widescreen monitor the Drama Machine was rolling onto the scene. "The losers will still have to sleep in a stanky old cabin," Chris noted as the monitor showed one of the old cabins. The cast groaned at that bit of news. "But the winners get to stay in the all-new eco-friendly McLean spa hotel." The image of the cabin zoomed out to show a newer, larger building next to it. The building had a deck wrapping the second floor, and a hot tub on the side. "Complete with butler, hot tub, and twenty-four hour masseuse."

Topher, Sammy, Heather, and Duncan were shown cheering at the new housing.

"And in honor of your all-star status, I'm dividing you into teams based on your past performances- heroes versus villains!"

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"Obviously I'll be on the villains' team, and I'll be running it by lunch," the queen bee boasted.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

Gwen slumped on the toilet seat. "Heroes versus villains? Guess Duncan and I won't be on the same team, unless Chris considers Duncan a hero." She allowed herself to chuckle at the notion. "Yeah right."

* * *

"Heather, Duncan, Scarlett, Topher, Sugar, and Gwen," Chris called out. The robot forcefully moved Gwen to stand next to the others named, and dropped her harshly on the ground. It rolled away as Duncan knelt to give her a hand. Duncan and Sugar were both bewildered by the robot's rough handling. "From now on, you're the Villainous Vultures."

A dark red circle with the head of a vulture appeared above the team's heads, showing off the team logo.

Topher folded his arms confidently. "I'd say that team name is pretty accurate."

Gwen had the opposite reaction. "What? Why am I on the villains' team?"

"Because you stole Courtney's boyfriend and did a bunch of other harsh stuff?" Sierra answered obliviously, not realizing how bad what she was saying sounded.

Chris pointed a finger at Sierra for the answer. "Yeah, that."

"But I've done so many good things," protested Gwen. "I'm not a villain. I'm nice."

The geek's words were ignored by mostly everyone. Duncan wrapped a comforting arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Being bad is cool, and now we're on the same team. So that's good, right?"

Gwen lowered her head, leaning against him. "I guess." Her answer made Duncan stare at her with half of his unibrow raised.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"Aw man, I only came back for Gwen. She better not sulk the whole time, otherwise I may as well be dating Courtney," the punk complained.

* * *

"Shawn, Jasmine, Samey, Beardo, Owen, Cody, and Sierra," Chris listed once the static transitioned. Sammy was the only one to frown when her name was called. Unlike Gwen, the robot was gentler with moving Sierra over to her new teammates. "You're the Heroic Hamsters."

Cody blinked at the host, drawing looks from his team. "Hamsters? Seriously? What about hawks? That's a bird too."

Chris shrugged at the question. "It was either hamsters, or hippos."

Sammy looked at her teammates, and said, "Hamsters does sound better."

"Wait a pickle picking minute," the voice of Sugar interrupted. The footage cut to the new Vultures staring at the team member that had spoken. "We got six people and they got seven. I'm calling this fixed!"

"I needed the seat on the copter for that Ezekiel prank," defended Chris. Once Sugar gave him a hard glare, he rolled his eyes. "Fine. You can have the robot." When he pressed a remote, the robot rolled over to the Vultures and took a spot right next to Heather. It was closer than she would like.

"Keep your distance, toaster." Heather held her arm out to keep it from moving any further.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

She shuddered when her confession began. "There's something about that robot I just don't like."

* * *

Scarlett adjusted her glasses, glancing at the robot as she did so. "I don't see how beneficial the robot will be compared to a human teammate, but as long as it keeps Sugar's complaints to a minimum, I see no problems with it being of use to us."

Chris sarcastically replied, "Glad to know it has your approval, Scarlett." He put on a host-worthy smile, and rested one hand on the monitor. "This year's challenges all nod to classics from the past, but with harsh new twists to make this the toughest Total Drama season ever." Clapping his hands together, he turned the image of the spa hotel back on the screen. "Your first challenge- find the key to the spa hotel, and you'll do it in a homage to Total Drama's first ever challenge, cliff diving into water infested with ravenous sharks."

On either side of Sugar, Duncan and Topher wore looks of concern while she put on a smug grin.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Sharks? Big deal. I wrestled with one last year, and it was on land. If I could beat him, then I shouldn't have a problem with the ones in the water," Sugar boasted with a face of restored make-up, her new team logo briefly appearing in the corner of the screen. "But the thing is I don't wanna get wet. I was already wet once today, and I don't want my make-up to run a second time."

* * *

Chef was shown on the monitor, kicking an intern in a red shirt and a cowboy hat off the cliff into the lake. "Once you dive into the water, try to avoid the sharks long enough to snag a key and choose wisely. Only one of those suckers is the real deal." The intern was shown struggling against a shark, and noticed a bunch of silver, gold, and a few bronze keys littered on the lake floor. The intern, now all scratched up with his hat half eaten, walked out of the lake with a key in hand, and slumped into a gold-colored baby carriage near the red-shirted intern from last season with hair covering his eyes. The intern then started to push the carriage out of view. "Assuming you live long enough to reach dry land, a teammate will drive you to the hotel in one of the baby carriages from season three's race to Central Park.

"The first team to unlock the spa door wins, and someone from Team Loser will be going home tonight. Meet me at the base of the cliff in fifteen minutes. Chop chop!" Chris hopped into a nearby jeep, driven by the red-shirted chubby intern from last season, and rode off.

"Uh, what about bathing suits?" Owen asked as the host left.

"Forget 'em!"

* * *

A shot of the cliff was briefly shown before the camera panned over the top of the woods the contestants were traveling through. A cut down to the ground level showed the Vultures walking several feet behind the Hamsters, with the robot's wheels squeaking quite obnoxiously.

"Ugh! I said keep away from me," Heather reprimanded the robot. It insisted on rolling closer to her than any of her other teammates.

The camera panned to the Hamsters further ahead, where Beardo attempted to start a conversation. "So, Sierra? What brought you back?"

"It's been a dream of mine to come here. I mean- this is Camp Wawanakwa, where the whole show started!" She made a grand sweep of her arms, gesturing to the entirety of the island. "I'm glad for it too because if it was on the plane again, I doubt Chris would've let me come."

"Oh yeah. You accidentally blew it up." He raised a hand to point at something. "Nice to see your hair growing back after you lost so much of it."

Sierra looked at her short ponytail fondly. "Thanks. Anyway, now that I'm here. I'm really excited to get to the end this time. I won't make the same mistakes that cost Cody and me the game."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"It's really great to be here," said Sierra. "I get to be part of Total Drama's first ever All-Star season! The only thing better than being part of it all would be being the winner of the first ever All-Star season!"

* * *

Heather reached for Scarlett's shoulder, and pulled the evil redhead behind her. "Brainy Betty, you like robots. You make friends with the toaster."

Scarlett fixed her glasses and glared at the original villain. "I would advise you refrain from irritating me. I have ways of making your life a nightmare."

The scene pulled back to show Gwen walking with the two girls. "Guys, just because Chris put us on the villains' team doesn't mean we have to act like villains. We're a team. We should work together as a team."

The scene pulled back even further to show the entire team walking together. The robot was in the back, followed by Scarlett, Heather, Gwen, Duncan, Sugar, and Topher. They all quickly voiced agreement on the statement.

"Yeah! Sure thing!" "Yes!"

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

The queen bee gave a scoff. "No way is that going to happen. I-"

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"-Don't trust-" The evil genius continued.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"-Anyone-" The delinquent pointed a finger at the camera.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"-On this-" The wannabe host said.

* * *

(Confessional- Drama Machine)

The robot beeped in a way that sounded like a bleeped curse word.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"-Team!" The pageant queen finished.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

She laughed slightly. "I think that went well."

The footage pulled back to show Gwen's confessional surrounded by two columns of screens with her teammates on them, only they had backgrounds of fire. She laughed good-naturedly while her teammates all gave villainous cackles.

* * *

Scarlett continued to glare, and Sammy was shown wincing at the action. She looked up at Jasmine walking beside her.

"Scarlett keeps making that look at me. It's been a year since the finale. You'd think she would let it go by now," she told her friend.

"She's just being a drongo. Some people hold grudges longer than others," assured Jasmine.

"That may be the case, but it also wouldn't hurt to be on your guard," Shawn interjected, joining the girls in the frame. "You never know whether someone's got something up their sleeve, or if they're going to become a zombie." He made a point of scanning the area with his eyes in a close-up.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Scarlett's a tricky character. Considering things she's done, and things that she thought about doing, we'd all have the right to be paranoid around her." He stood up on the outhouse seat, and looked out the window cautiously.

* * *

Owen and Cody walked together, and the larger boy spoke up. "Great to be back at camp, isn't it? The nature, the memories…"

Cody chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah… the nature, the memories…" He got a faraway look in his eye and stopped walking to shudder for a moment. He blinked his eyes and noticed that his team was passing him. The geek jogged lightly to catch back up to Owen.

* * *

On the beach beside the cliff, the Vultures stood on the left with a dark red baby carriage while the Hamsters stood on the right with a bright yellow one.

Right when the robot rolled onto the scene, the campers heard Chris's familiar chuckle. "Greetings, All-Stars!" The host appeared from the sky, wearing his helmet, gloves, and his jetpack. The jetpack's thrust kicked up a lot of sand, sending most of the campers into coughing fits while trying to keep sand from getting into their eyes. Satisfied with his entrance, Chris landed between the carriages. "Here are your carriages- blood red for the Villainous Vultures and purest gold for the Heroic Hamsters. You've got thirty seconds to pick your carriage drivers, starting now!"

"I'll drive!" Sugar called, grabbing the carriage's handlebar.

Topher came up beside her. "No, I will!"

"I can't dive. My make-up will run again and I just put on a new coat," she reasoned.

"You also can't run. I've got way better calves than you. I should be the driver," argued Topher.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"If I can drive the carriage, I can get some one-on-one time with the classic players and try to make an alliance with them. It's perfect for starting a new game."

* * *

Heather walked over to settle the argument. "As much as I hate Chris, and anybody who wants to be like him, I have to agree with Chris Junior. He's driving, and you're jumping."

Sugar scowled at her. "Make me." Heather grabbed a portion of her curly hair and yanked her away from the carriage. "Ow! Quit pulling my hair!" Topher smirked, watching her be pulled away.

"Ten seconds," Chris announced while the camera cut to the Heroic Hamsters.

"Anybody want to volunteer?" Sammy looked between her teammates.

Cody shrugged, stepping forward. "I'll do it. I'd rather not get stuck in a baby carriage again, or dive into shark-infested water."

"Okay, everyone but Cody and Topher, up the cliff you go!" Chris pointed up, finalizing the decisions.

* * *

Several campers were heard panting as the camera zoomed in on the cliff. Chris was already at the top waiting for them, and he had ditched his jetpack equipment. Duncan was the first to arrive.

"I hate this stupid cliff," the delinquent spat, trying to catch his breath. His teammates sans Topher all joined him, followed by the Hamsters. Shawn and Owen had just reached the top when Owen tipped over and fell on top of his teammate, eliciting a groan of pain from the conspiracy nut.

Never having been up on the cliff before, Jasmine, Beardo, and Sugar all took a look over the edge down into the water with identical expressions of horror. In the middle of the circling sharks below, Fang surfaced and gave them a taunting wave.

"Fang!" The three campers gasped.

Gwen joined them, and fretfully asked, "Who?"

Ignoring the concern from the campers, Chris began narrating, "Who's the best key spotter? And who's dead in the shark-infested water? Find out when we return on Total Drama All-Stars!" As the camera panned out for commercial, Sugar could be seen glaring down at her old rival. Then everything went black.

* * *

When the darkness faded back into the show, the teams were in position. Most of the Hamsters were nervous, and Jasmine was the only one wearing a confident smile. The Vultures showed more indifference to the challenge, and Duncan was the only one of them to smile.

"Places, people! It's diving time," declared the host.

"Can somebody try and get the key before it's my turn? I still have a problem with jumping this high." Owen looked to his teammates for reassurance.

Chris held up an air horn. "One diver per team at a time. The next diver has to wait until their carriage returns. Ready, set…" He pressed the horn, signaling for the challenge to begin.

"I'll take a crack at this first," Jasmine told her team, already taking a running start and diving off the cliff.

Scarlett soon followed suit. "As will I."

The sharks below awaited their first victims, but Jasmine was more than prepared. With a hand clasped onto her hat, she curled her other hand into a fist and thrust it out in front of her. Before Fang knew it, he was being struck in the nose by the explorer, and the other two sharks were so stunned by the display that they could only blink when Scarlett splashed down in the same place Fang had been.

Jasmine soon came up for air, holding up the key she had retrieved. "What do you know? The TV was right. You can punch a shark in the nose." She quickly made her way to shore, and hopped into the Hamsters' carriage. Her long legs comically dangled mere inches from touching the ground. "Let's move out, mate!"

Cody grinned at her. "Nice!" Using his scrawny arms, he began to pull the occupied carriage off the beach. Topher watched them go with an annoyed expression.

"And the Heroic Hamsters take the lead," Chris narrated while the sharks were shown comforting Fang's bruised face with a handkerchief. This moment of sympathy allowed Scarlett to swim behind them safely to shore.

Scarlett got into Vultures' carriage. "Move it! Jasmine's body weight is more than mine, so we should be able to utilize less drag to catch up with them."

"We wouldn't need to catch up with them if you moved faster in the first place," Topher argued, but started to pull the carriage away regardless.

* * *

In the woods, Cody panted as he pushed the carriage to their destination. "You were on the island while it was mutated, right? Was it bad?"

"Oh, it was bad. There were lots of strange things I'd never seen before, but they weren't anything I couldn't handle. If you need any help with things like those, just let me know," Jasmine said.

Cody nodded. "Sounds good, though I think Sierra's got that covered." He chuckled a little.

They finally arrived at the spa hotel, and Jasmine got out to reach the door. She tried to fit the key into the lock and twist, but it wouldn't budge.

Jasmine gave a groan of irritation. "No good. This wasn't the right one."

Cody leaned against the handlebar of the carriage for a moment's rest. "With how many keys Chris seemed to have, I'd be surprised if we got it on the first try."

Jasmine dropped the key on the porch since it was useless, and made her way back to the carriage. "I suppose you're right. Let's get back."

Just as they were leaving, Scarlett and Topher arrived at the hotel. Scarlett inserted the key, but it wouldn't budge. "This key is incorrect." She threw it to the floor and looked at the key hole.

"Coming from you, that's a surprise," Topher snarked.

* * *

Back up at the cliff, Duncan was getting impatient with waiting. "Come on, come on…"

Sierra walked over to him and Gwen. "You know, a lot of my blog readers were mad about you guys hooking up, but I get it. Love is love." Duncan and Gwen exchanged a strange glance as she went on. "Just like me and Cody."

"Aren't you guys just friends now?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, but maybe someday we could-"

Suddenly, Duncan pointed down at the beach. "Here comes Topher! How about a kiss for luck?" He suggested to Gwen, puckering his lips in preparation.

Gwen looked at him and then at Sierra, who seemed very interested in watching them kiss up close. Being between the two made the loner feel awkward, so she shoved Duncan towards the cliff edge. "Sorry, no time!"

Caught off-guard, Duncan fumbled over the edge with a scream. Luckily, the sharks didn't seem to be around to try and attack him when he fell in. Eyeing a key close to him, he scooped it up and was met with the agitated face of Fang. While Fang tried to take a bite out of him, Duncan speedily swam to the surface.

Scarlett and Topher seemed to have passed Jasmine and Cody on the way back, so they were at the beach first. The evil genius was quick to get out of the carriage, and Duncan soon replaced her in it.

"Let's roll," he said to Topher, who obligingly started heading back to the spa hotel.

"And the Villainous Vultures take the lead!" Chris announced from the air, his jetpack back in place.

"Somebody jump; we're behind now," Jasmine hollered up to the cliff when she and Cody arrived on the scene.

Sierra appeared to take up the command. She jumped with a wide smile. "I'm coming, Cody! Yeehaw!"

Bewildered by the girl's enthusiasm, Shawn and Sammy couldn't help but peer over the cliff and watch her disappear under the water.

"Something about her just isn't right," Shawn remarked to a speechless Sammy.

Sierra, in a usual show of her surprising strength, punched and kicked at Fang's cohorts until she was able to snag a key. Once she was back above water, she held up her key in awe. "I found one that looks just like Cody!"

Having just gotten out of the carriage, Jasmine looked on with a confused frown while Cody felt the need to facepalm. "Yeah, you might be onto something," she said to the geek.

Sierra bounced into the carriage. "Hehe, quite the reversed roles. Right, Cody?" She joked.

Cody rolled his eyes at her sense of humor. "If you say so." He started to make his second round to the hotel.

* * *

In the woods, Topher did exactly as he planned and tried to talk with Duncan. "While we're alone for the moment, you want to make an alliance?"

"An alliance with Chris's mini-me? No thanks." Duncan scoffed. "The only person I'd be in alliance with is Gwen, and maybe Owen, but he's on the other team."

"It'd be worth your while," Topher persisted.

They arrived at the hotel, and Duncan tried the key in the lock. To his dismay, the key wouldn't fit. "No go, it's a dud."

"So about that alliance?" Topher asked, standing beside him on the porch with a hopeful face.

Duncan dropped the key, and crossed his arms. "The answer is still no." Topher sighed at the rejection.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I really need an alliance," Topher admitted to the audience. "It's the only way I can get enough votes to get rid of Scarlett, and I need to act before she does. She's crazy smart, so she might already be trying to get rid of me too."

* * *

Soon after Duncan and Topher left, Cody and Sierra showed up. The latter ran up to the door, and tried her seemingly Cody-shaped key. Like the others, it wouldn't open the door.

"Aw, my Cody key is too small. Back we go!" She ran back to the carriage.

Breathing heavily, Cody complained, "But we just got here."

* * *

A flash returned to the cliff. Sammy and Gwen were lined up next while their teammates watched for the carriages to return. Duncan and Topher had just returned moments before, and Cody and Sierra caught up. Having not jumped from the cliff in years, Gwen was hesitating her jump, which lost the Vultures the lead.

"Hey, there they are!" Owen pointed out. He turned towards Sammy and Gwen. "Sammy, go!"

"Okay!" Sammy replied, and got ready to jump. She looked at Gwen beside her, and offered her hand. "You want to jump together?"

Gwen looked at her with surprise. "You look like one of the last people that would willingly jump off of this." She gestured to the cliff.

Sammy smiled sheepishly. "I know, but spending the last year with Shawn and Jasmine made me more willing to try new things." She offered her hand again. "So, do you?"

Gwen looked at the hand, flummoxed, but a grateful smile formed on her pale face. "Sure. Let's do it." Taking Sammy's hand, the pair of them jumped into the water. Gwen was the first to pop back up for air, and she was confronted by Fang's cronies. "Whoa, nice sharks…" The loner tried to hold her hands up in a calming gesture.

Fang rose behind her, with Sammy clinging to his dorsal fin. Gwen turned and got her first close look at the mutated shark, making her gasp in fright.

Duncan's eyes went wide with concern. "Gwen!"

A low whistle sounded as a rock was lobbed down at Fang, bopping him on the nose to the confusion of everyone in the water.

"Nobody's becoming shark bait today!" Shawn defiantly cried, picking up a rock and throwing it. He grabbed another one and threw that quickly after the first.

He managed to hit all three sharks on the nose, and they retreated, leaving Gwen and Sammy to tread.

"Thanks, Shawn!" Sammy called up, and she and Gwen dove for their keys.

Shawn smirked to himself for a job well done. Behind him, Sugar and Heather along with Beardo and Owen all commented on his skilled shots. He heard them, and spun around to address them. "Hey, I'm not on the heroes' team for nothing."

* * *

A cut forward showed Gwen reaching shore first with her key in hand, and she jumped into the carriage. "Hurry!"

Topher started taking her up the beach, grumbling. "I know the drill."

Sammy arrived at the Heroes' carriage soon after they left. Sierra gestured to it kindly. "It's all yours."

"Thanks!" She got into the carriage. "After them, Cody!" Seeing how tired he was, slouched over the handlebar, she politely added, "Please?"

* * *

Gwen tried her key at the hotel, and stomped her foot when it didn't open the door. "Darn it!"

"We better get the right key soon. This level of sweaty is not a good look for me," Topher remarked, panting.

"Maybe you should've been a diver," Gwen suggested passively, getting ready for the return trip. Topher hauled her away, and the Hamsters showed up after them.

Sammy ran up to the door to test her key. "Nope. Still not right." She frowned sympathetically when she heard a groan from Cody off-screen.

* * *

Beardo massaged Owen's shoulders in an attempt to help him. "You can do this. You've jumped the cliff before. You can do it one more time."

Owen nodded along with the encouraging words. "One more time. Just one more. Okay, here goes." Before he could turn back, he made a run for the edge. Heather was already there, preparing for her jump. Unfortunately for her, Owen collided into her back and made her jump premature. Both veterans screamed as they fell towards the water.

Heather landed far off-course while Owen hit right where he was supposed to. He came up moments later exclaiming, "Great nostalgia goggles, that was just as terrifying as it's ever been!" The sharks' dorsal fins caught his eye, and he let out another terrified scream.

With the sharks occupied by Owen, Heather was able to slip under and select a key to try. She emerged from the lake and ran for Topher. As he carted her away, she called, "Sucker!"

Owen managed to get to the lake floor and take a key. When he noticed his attackers coming close, he tried to swim away. A well-timed fart escaped his butt, giving him a boost away while Fang's gang choked on the flatulence.

* * *

A flash forward a few minutes later had Topher resting from his continuous runs. "This idea of trying to make alliances during these runs sounded a lot better in my head."

"It doesn't fit! Come on, let's go!" Heather snapped, returning to him.

Cody and Owen arrived at the hotel at the slowest rate in the challenge so far. The carriage looked ready to break under Owen's girth. As for Cody, he appeared ready to faint from exhaustion.

"Thanks, Cody, you're a pal." Owen thanked his teammate, prying himself out of his ride to try his key. Once he was out of frame, the carriage somehow popped back up into proper shape, unwittingly slugging Cody in the chin and making the geek collapse.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"It's been more than a year since I did these challenges, and I forgot how brutal they could be," the geek said in the outhouse. "I hope we don't have to make any more runs like this one later on."

* * *

"Come on, Sugar! It's your turn!" Gwen complained while she and Scarlett attempted to pry the girl off a large boulder. Duncan stood to the side along with the robot.

"We've all done our part except you," Scarlett informed her.

"No way! I ain't jumping. I already had to do my make-up twice today," Sugar shot back.

Beardo pointed down at the beach in a quick pan to the Hamsters. "Cody and Owen are coming back."

Jasmine glanced at Shawn. "You're up, mate." He nodded to her, and dove.

"You have to dive. It's you or the robot, and I'm pretty sure the robot isn't waterproof," Duncan quipped when the focus returned to the Vultures.

While trying to get Sugar off the boulder, Scarlett threw a glance over her shoulder to analyze the robot with a glance. "I can confirm that. It doesn't appear structurally stable enough to withstand complete aquatic submersion."

"Now you're just making up words," Sugar retorted, struggling to maintain her grip.

Shawn arrived on the beach with a key in hand. "Quick, while we've got a chance." He climbed in, and Cody started on a tired walk.

"The Heroic Hamsters have re-taken the lead," Chris declared.

"Dive!" All of Sugar's human teammates shouted at the pageant queen. In the moment they did so, Gwen and Scarlett finally managed to get Sugar off the boulder, but it had taken all their might so they fell back and accidentally pushed the robot backwards.

The robot stopped at the edge of the cliff. It made a pitiful couple beeps that sounded like 'uh oh' before the edge couldn't support it anymore and broke off, sending the metallic player crashing down the side of the cliff. Gwen, Duncan, and Sugar all winced at watching it hit some rocks on the way down. It created a big splash upon entry, leaving a short stream of bubbles in its wake.

On shore, Heather actually seemed pleased by the development. "So long and good riddance." Beside her, Topher was too tired to pay attention to what she was happy about.

The robot sunk to the bottom of the lake. Fang and his crew were quick to descend on their new chew toy. Fang took to biting the head while his fellow sharks bit at the arms. The robot started to spark, making them back off for fear of being electrocuted. After a few sparks went off at different parts around the body, the robot exploded in a watery combustion.

A figure flew out of the water along with the parts of the former robot, rising against the sun.

A close-up showed that the figure was none other than a disheveled Alejandro from the third season with a five-o'clock shadow and hair longer than it was when he had competed throughout the show. He opened his eyes and gave a charming smile to the camera upon seeing he was freed.

Gwen, Duncan, and Sierra all stared with their jaws dropped in shock. Jasmine eyed the former contestant skeptically while Beardo scratched his afro in confusion. Sugar shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand while she too tried to see who had come out of the robot. Heather took the surprise worst of them all.

"Wha-aaat?!" she exclaimed. "You have got to be kidding me!" As she expressed her incredulous outrage, Sierra could be seen recovering from the shock and breaking into a huge smile.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

Still in his unkempt appearance, Alejandro explained, "Last I remember, I was burnt to a crisp by the volcano and Chris sealed me up in that robot suit to 'heal'." He put air quotes around the last word. "It feels so good to be free after all this time. I must thank Sugar for her stubbornness."

* * *

Alejandro landed on the beach on his feet, the robot parts falling around him. He even managed to catch a key that had been blown out of the lake with him.

"Way to go, Alejandro!" Gwen cheered among the Vultures' other praises. Those praises quickly turned to sympathetic winces when his legs gave way beneath him and he fell face first into the sand.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"I was stuck in that robot suit for a year! My legs are so asleep, it's like they're in a coma!" For emphasis, he picked one leg up and tried to shake it awake. "Wakey wakey… nothing."

* * *

At the hotel, Shawn found out his key didn't work and he added it to the pile on the porch. "Wrong key! There goes our lead. Let's head back."

"I wish I had let you volunteer to push instead," Cody sighed while the conspiracy nut climbed back into their team's ride. He was about to start pushing when Topher arrived with Alejandro in the Vultures' carriage. "What the? Alejandro?!"

Alejandro smiled at the geek's surprised expression. "Si, amigo. It's me." Topher wasn't strong enough to carry the former robot up the stairs, so he had to settle for dragging him up by the armpits. Alejandro put the key in the lock, and twisted.

The door opened.

"Finalmente!" Alejandro cried out while Topher shouted, "Finally!"

"The door is open!" Chris arrived via his jetpack. "The Villainous Vultures win!"

Cody and Shawn groaned at the loss as the scene faded.

* * *

When the show faded back in from commercial, night had fallen on the island. The camera cut to the bonfire pit. Chris and Chef stood at the oil drum podium that the host liked to use while the Hamsters sat on the stumps that usually served as seats for the ceremony. Beardo was in the back left corner, followed by Owen, Jasmine, and Shawn. In the front row, Sierra sat on the end with Cody next to her, and Sammy on Cody's other side. In a corner of the bonfire pit, a new row of bleachers was added, and it was those bleachers where the Vultures sat.

"Welcome to our first elimination ceremony," Chris greeted the cast. "How do you like the new peanut gallery? Now winners can watch their opponents give someone the boot before they head to the spa hotel for a deluxe dinner."

The Vultures had been indifferent in the gallery until Chris mentioned their reward meal, to which they all started high-fiving each other. Alejandro, Gwen, Duncan, and Scarlett occupied the lower bench while Topher, Sugar, and Heather were in the upper bench.

Jasmine took the moment to lean over to Shawn. "We're still clear on who we're voting for, right?"

Shawn nodded in response. "Yeah, hopefully we have the majority."

"Before we start," Chris began to speak again, "I need one winner to volunteer for a special reward."

Sugar was at his side in an instant. "You had me at winner."

Chris smiled mischievously at her. "Great. Your reward is spending the night in exile on Boney Island with all the hungry wild animals."

"That's not a special reward," Sugar argued before jabbing her finger at him. "You tricked me!"

"The reward is special because there's a McLean invincibility statue hidden somewhere on Boney Island. Find it, and you're golden." Chris finished his explanation, holding up an example of the idol for everyone to see.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Now he chooses to inform us of an invincibility statue."

Sugar still didn't like the fact she'd be spending her first night as a winner not in luxury, but let Chef guide her down to the Boat of Losers since the statute meant an extra chance at staying safe in the game.

"This year, you get to vote by placing an X on the 8 by 10 photo of the person you want to eliminate," Chris informed the Hamsters. "Now, get voting."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

The cheerleader frowned sympathetically as she crossed out the portrait of her choice.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

The conspiracy nut crossed out his chosen portrait, a bit more determined than Sammy appeared.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

The wilderness explorer made a quick mark on her selected photo.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

The human soundboard poked his afro with his pen, trying to decide if he should mark the photo in his hand.

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

Like Beardo, the blogger thought for a moment about who to vote.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

The geek marked a picture.

* * *

(Confessional- Owen)

The chubby buddy looked up in thought for a moment, and then smiled as he marked a portrait.

* * *

Once the votes were over, Chris was shown onscreen with a plate of marshmallows. "Okay, the following people are safe… Jasmine!"

She smiled as she caught the marshmallow thrown to her.

"Sierra!"

The blogger eagerly accepted her marshmallow.

"Shawn!"

He kept a serious face while catching his treat.

"Beardo!"

The marshmallow got caught in his hair, and he plucked it out.

"And Sammy."

The cheerleader happily caught her marshmallow.

"Cody, you're on the chopping block because you were today's driver." Cody gaped at the threat of elimination. Stuffing her marshmallow in her mouth, Sierra reached over and wrapped her arms protectively around his head. "Owen, you're on the chopping block because you really took the wind out of Cody during today's run."

Owen opened his mouth to say something, thought about it, and then instead said, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Chris held up the final marshmallow. "And the loser is…"

Owen bit his lip. Cody grimaced, waiting to hear the result. The camera showed the marshmallow one last time before showing the bottom two together.

"…Owen."

"Oh, thank you." Cody inhaled a breath of relief, catching the marshmallow. As Sierra let go of his head, he faced his teammate. "Sorry, Owen."

"Yeah. Sorry," Sierra added, also looking at the chubby buddy.

Owen stood up from his stump. "It's okay. It was fun to come back to camp for a little while." He looked at Chris. "Do I have to use that catapult thing they did last year?" He pointed at Jasmine and Shawn in question.

Chris shook his head. "Nope! This year, we've got a brand new elimination device." The scene flipped to the Dock of Shame, where a giant toilet was positioned at one end. Owen sat in the bowl of the giant toilet. "Behold, the Flush of Shame!"

Most of the remaining Heroic Hamsters cringed in disgust. Sierra, however, smiled while taking out what looked like a phone and snapping a picture.

"Bye, guys! Have fun now that camp's back to-" Chris cut Owen off by pressing a remote and activating the flush function. "Norm-aaal!" Owen spun around the bowl before disappearing inside it. A flush sounded, and a large wave of backsplash flew out. Reacting timely, the host opened an umbrella over his head, leaving the contestants to get soaked.

They cringed in disgust again, with Cody in particular muttering, "Ewewewewew…"

Their sickened reactions left Chris chuckling. He discarded the umbrella once the splash was over. "Who will be flushed into the history books next? Find out when we return on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

In an unspecified body of water, bubbles formed on the surface and popped rapidly. Soon, Owen surfaced, gasping for air.

"Whoa, what a rush!" Owen commented to no one, chuckling. "It was like a water slide!"

"Ooh, ooh! There he is! Hi, Owen!" An excited voice called, making Owen look to the screen's left.

A speedboat arrived on the scene with Izzy and Eva on board. Eva was steering while Izzy was waving wildly.

"Izzy? Eva? What are you guys doing here?" Owen asked, looking around again. "Speaking of, where is here anyway?"

Izzy helped Owen into the boat as she explained. "We're in New York, silly. Pretty close to Central Park too." The camera zoomed out to show they were indeed in New York. They were near a sewer entrance, and skyscraper-like buildings could be seen in the background. "We came to pick you up and take you home."

Owen smiled gratefully to her. "Thanks." He got a confused look on his face, and then scratched his head. "But how'd you know where I'd be?"

"Thank Noah. He wanted to screw with Chris and the producers by hacking the show's database, and he found out some really juicy stuff."

Eva grunted, "If you can even call it that. The stuff he found on the giant toilet and the finale is weird, if you ask me."

"Oh, cool." Owen looked between the two girls. "Um, don't take this the wrong way. I get why Izzy's here, but I don't get why you are."

The bodybuilder shrugged. "Noah made me. He's still trying to figure some stuff out, and he's your friend so…"

Izzy bounced in her seat. "Come on! Let's get some giant pretzels and head home."

"We're not getting giant pretzels," Eva replied, starting up the boat again and driving it out of frame.

"Aw…" Both Owen and Izzy whined at the same time.

* * *

 **Owen- 14th**

 **When I first started planning All-Stars, I noted several things wrong about the original lineup, like there being no Gen 1 males on the Heroic Hamsters and there being a 5-2 gender division for each generation. In my version, I sought to rectify that. When I went about fixing that, I knew I wanted both World Tour newbies in because they deserved a second chance to play and the 'canon' season messed up their characters horribly, so I wanted to fix that too. In order to bring Gen 1 males into the hero mix, I took out Lindsay for Owen, and took out Courtney for Cody. As controversial as the second decision probably is, allow me to point out that the Pahkitew crew had one more heroic female than the Revenge crew, which messed with the gender balance of the lineup, and since I refused to take Sierra out, Courtney was the only other choice. That, and I wanted Gwen and Duncan's story to occur without Courtney around as a third wheel and making Gwen's situation worse.**

 **Regarding the cast for this, Alejandro, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, and Sierra are all in by virtue of being in the original. Owen was selected because like Gwen, he was one of the two original finalists, and Cody was selected for reaching the final three and if Sierra's previous attitude towards him is any indication, he has a big fanbase in-universe. Then for the newbies, Beardo, Jasmine, Sammy, Scarlett, Shawn, and Topher were all in by virtue of being in the newbies' first merge. Sugar, the wild card of their group, was chosen because she had quit due to the worthless diamond and needed some redemption. Plus, since she more or less played Anne Maria's role, her inclusion could be a nod to Anne Maria's intended inclusion in All-Stars before she was dropped. I know several people were guessing Dave and Sky would be cast, but I already have enough relationship drama to focus on with other couples.**

 **Right off the bat, I knew Owen was leaving first. The guy was due a pre-top ten elimination, and I have plans for everyone else. The idea of flushed contestants being picked up by former contestants comes from Fangren's Total Shuffled All-Stars, but it could be argued the idea originated in canon too with Heather picking up Alejandro in his bonus clip. The idea is just too awesome not to include, and lets me play with characters that wouldn't have been involved in Cast Swap otherwise.**

 **Onto changes made in this version of All-Stars. Due to how terribly the characters were treated, I attempted to fix several things. First and foremost, the Gwen bashing the show seemed to pull. Repeatedly, Gwen tried to defend her relationship with Duncan by stating he and Courtney were broken up when she and Duncan kissed and hooked up. We saw nothing about a break-up between Courtney and Duncan prior to that, so she really did steal Courtney's boyfriend. I had Sierra bring this up as the reason for Gwen being on the villains' team, but she was nicer about it, and unlike canon, I had Gwen not try to defend herself with the same statement over and over again. Not having Courtney involved also removed the scene of Gwen trying to apologize and give Courtney flowers she 'just so happened' to be allergic to as well as next episode's scene with the garbage booby trap 'proving' Gwen was on the right team.**

 **Another change made was Sierra's dialogue. Now that she's been an official member of the cast and official friends with Cody for over a year, her fandom of both has been dialed back a few notches. The Sierra I'm trying to portray is the one I believe we would've gotten if everyone's characters weren't so terribly botched. This time, instead of hanging around Cody, Sierra is more focused on being where the show began and getting to know the contestants that came after her.**

 **Speaking of dialogue, I hope nobody has a problem with a lot of dialogue being recycled from canon due to nearly half the cast being the same as in the original version.**

 **We are nearly one month away from the holidays, so I would like to express my holiday wish for Cast Swap to receive a TV Tropes page. My year would be made if someone were to make one.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	15. TDAS Episode 2

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **N8han11:** To each their own about the chosen cast, I guess. I was hoping to make the love triangle less grating and let the couple interact without Courtney hovering over their shoulders every second. The reason Courtney is not competing this time around is because of the butterfly effect. Little changes can lead to big changes overall.

 **SideshowJazz1:** You're in for a fun time. And yeah, Sierra deserved better. All of the cast did.

 **AnonBrowser:** My apologies about the love triangle. I should've worded that a bit differently since you are correct that it's mostly Duncan's fault.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Glad to hear you're cheering for Cody. We'll have to see if he has better luck later. I didn't want to include Courtney because she was making Gwen's experience worse than it already was, and I wanted to make the love triangle progression less grating for everyone.

 **Derick Lindsey:** Yeah, Sierra could've been written better in canon. Also, making Owen the runner for his team would've been a very blatant sign he was up for elimination, so that's why I didn't have him do it. Believe me, I have plans for Gwuncan without Courtney around. Interesting predictions about the season. We'll have to see if you're right later.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Thanks for the review!

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, I don't plan on flanderizing anybody. And yeah, Courtney is difficult to write, especially at this point in the TD timeline.

 **Phenomenal Excelsior:** Glad to hear you're okay with most of the decisions I made regarding the cast for the TDAS season.

 **That British Guy:** Yeah, it should be a good one.

 **Lowland Warrior:** I replied to your review in a PM.

 **StarHeart Specials:** Yeah, I just didn't have room for Dave and Sky in the story I wanted to tell. Picking up the losers is such a fun idea I couldn't leave it out. I hope you'll be interested in what happens next.

 **Joel Connell:** Interesting thoughts about the season.

 **Fangren:** Thanks for your thoughts about the TDAS cast. Interesting how you're looking forward to how Beardo develops. Yeah, Owen is more or less part of Team E-scope, so Izzy and Eva were chosen to pick him up.

 **Knight:** To answer your questions, I have plans for filling in time leftover from the Mal plot. I can't answer your question about Gwuncan because that would be spoilers.

 **Overlord Exor:** Thanks for the review. I'll say this much about Ezekiel, if someone had caught him quick enough after getting hurled with Shawn, he probably would've been cured by now. In this shape, Ezekiel is a slippery one to catch.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** I think they're better off as friends.

 **Great Idea Alert:** Glad to know you like what I'm doing with Sierra. To each their own about being a fan of hers.

As a reminder, my wish for this holiday season is for Cast Swap to receive a **TVTropes page.** If someone could make one, I'll be sure to give them a shout-out at the beginning of the next chapter following its creation.

Onto the story, where our remaining heroes and villains will be digging up statue pieces!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything in the franchise. I only own a couple Total Drama shirts and a season one DVD.

Episode 2- Evil Dread

The show started with a far shot of the island. "Last time on Total Drama All-Stars," Chris began to narrate, "I welcomed the all-stars to the newly decontaminated island." A clip of Owen jumping from the helicopter was shown. Then the cast was shown reaching the shore and separating into their teams, with Alejandro still in the robot. "Then it was heroes versus villains diving into shark-infested waters in search of the one key that would unlock the door to the all-new McLean spa hotel for winners only." Campers were shown diving underwater to grab a key, followed by shots of the hotel's interior, including a lounge with a massage table set up.

Sugar was shown clinging to the boulder, and Gwen and Scarlett were trying to pull her off. "Thanks to Sugar's refusal to let her make-up run, we learned that inside every robot beats the heart of a Spaniard. In this case, Alejandro!" The footage of the robot exploding and releasing Alejandro was replayed. "And while Alejandro might not hold the key to Heather's heart anymore, he did hold the key to the spa hotel. Victory went to the Vultures, and the Hamsters bid farewell to Owen via our newest and most humiliating mode of transportation- the Flush of Shame!" Owen was last seen spinning down the toilet bowl before the footage cut to Chris in the present.

"Who will be next to pop through the pooper?" Chris asked while standing on the dock. "Find out right now on Total Drama All-Stars!"

* * *

 _Na, I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous…_

Cameras popped out of every nook and cranny, ready to film. A camera zoomed through the island like previously done in the Revenge of the Island intro. Chef was shown landing a helicopter with Chris in the passenger seat and the million dollar case in the host's arms. The camera reached the cliff, and dove into the water.

Sierra and Heather were shown in their swimwear, each pulling at one end of a wooden treasure chest. In the background, Sugar could be seen swimming away from Fang with an annoyed expression. For some reason, Owen appeared to be hanging onto Fang's tail in terror. The treasure chest popped open, revealing Cody and a couple of invincibility statues, and the reveal made Sierra and Heather stop fighting.

 _Na, I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous…_

Up on the surface of the lake, everyone else was shown standing on rafts with fighting batons in their hands. The Vultures were on the left side with red batons, and the Hamsters were on the right side with yellow batons. Topher and Shawn were in front, followed by Scarlett and Sammy, then Alejandro and Beardo, and lastly Gwen and Duncan against Jasmine, who appeared able to take on both of them.

Topher appeared cocky at first going against Shawn, but quickly changed his tune once he and Shawn crossed batons, and the conspiracy nut had a determined frown on his face. Scarlett and Sammy were shown crossing batons next, both with a scowl on their faces and neither with any intention of letting up. Alejandro smugly crossed his baton with Beardo's, using only one hand, and Beardo used both hands while wearing a nervous look. Gwen and Duncan went at Jasmine the same time, and their determination faded to surprise when Jasmine managed to match them both with her baton by herself. Jasmine's confidence turned to shock when she noticed that one end of her baton was on fire.

The camera zoomed into the fire, pulling back as the fire faded away to show Shawn and Jasmine sitting at a bonfire. The pair leaned in to kiss, but Sierra popped up between them with her phone in hand. She snapped a picture, forcing them to lean away and blink away the camera's flash. The shot zoomed out to show the three of them and the rest of the cast, including Chris, at a bonfire along with a sign that read 'Total Drama All-Stars'.

* * *

Once the intro was over, the loser cabin was shown. A bird chirped as it flew past the camera. The camera zoomed in on the boys' side of the cabin when Cody could be heard moaning, signaling he had awoken for the day.

A cut inside the cabin showed Cody sitting up in his top bunk on the right side of the room, wearing a yellow night shirt that bore a black computer loading symbol. He stretched his arms. "The first night back wasn't so bad at all. Come to think of it, Owen didn't fart once…" Opening his eyes, he noticed that only he and Beardo were in the room. Across the room on the lower bunk, Beardo slept while making random sound effects in regular intervals. "Oh, right…" A mosquito in the room flew by his face, and he yelped, grabbing his pillow and swatting the mosquito against the wall closest to him. He watched as it dropped to the floor to make sure it was dead.

The scene flash transitioned into the girls' side of the cabin, where Sammy was sound asleep in a lower bunk on the left side of the room. The tanned hand of Sierra reached over, clutching her phone, and she snapped a picture. The flash from the camera was enough to startle Sammy awake.

"Agh! Sierra!" The cheerleader griped, looking over at her roommate.

Sierra sat dressed for the day on her bed across from her, typing away on her phone. "Hey, Sammy! I've updated the sleeping section of your picture gallery on my fan site. Whee," she giggled enthusiastically.

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

Still typing on her phone, Sierra made her confession. "I hate to break Chris's rules about smuggling in special items like my phone, but this is my chance to get exclusive interviews with the new players." She read out loud as she typed, "Sammy is sweeter in person, and Jasmine continues to live and breathe the outdoors." Finishing her typing, she addressed the camera again. "It's better this way. Last time, I had a teensy bit of a problem with Internet withdrawal. If it does end up getting taken away, at least I'll have a little while before the withdrawal kicks in again."

* * *

Sammy was out of bed now, but she continued to stare strangely at Sierra.

"Don't worry, I won't let Chris take you," Sierra cooed to her phone, holding it close.

"Room service, suckers!" The voice of Chef Hatchet chuckled, making Sammy look towards the door. A bucket full of gruel smashed a hole through the door, spilling slop everywhere.

"Agh! Chef!" Sammy complained in the same tone she had used with Sierra.

Chef poked his head through the hole and announced with his usual sinister smile, "Here's breakfast!"

"Thank you, Chef," Sierra thanked the cook while wearing a face full of gruel.

Sammy wiped the gruel off her own face, and said, "We have to go win the next challenge and get in that spa hotel." She gave Sierra a look of disgust as her roommate walked over to her, eating a handful of slop while offering a handful to her. Sammy politely waved off the offer. "No thanks."

The pair faced the door again as Jasmine opened the door, disregarding the hole in it. "Everyone alright?" The explorer inquired.

Shawn leaned in the doorway. "We heard screaming."

* * *

While Sammy and Sierra recounted what had just happened with Chef, the camera panned over to the spa hotel.

"Now this is how a host lives," Topher could be heard saying.

Topher was shown sitting at the right end of a long dining table in a luxurious-looking dining room with Gwen sitting opposite of him. He had a plate of toast and eggs in front of him accompanied with a glass of orange juice while Gwen had a stack of pancakes and a glass of orange juice.

"When I launch my hosting career, I'm going to have a place just like this," he continued to say. "Did you see that releasing of doves at five AM? That was a show in itself."

The butler came into the room and set down a stack of pancakes in the seat next to Topher's. Duncan arrived moments later and took the seat. Despite Duncan rejecting Topher's alliance offer the previous day, he seemed to agree about the hotel. "Yeah, this is the life. If we keep winning challenges, we can live like kings all season." He raised a glass of juice. "To villainy!" The delinquent and the wannabe host toasted to that, clinking their glasses together.

"Yeah… villainy…" Gwen mumbled to herself.

Duncan looked at his girlfriend. "S'up with you, dollface?"

Realizing she was being addressed, Gwen straightened up stiffly. "Oh nothing, just wondering how Sugar's doing on Boney Island."

* * *

Appropriately, the scene transitioned to the stormy day occurring on Boney Island. Lightning struck in the background as the camera panned down onto Sugar sitting next to a makeshift fire pit on the beach. On a stick held over the fire, she cooked a dead fish.

"Some reward this turned out to be," the pageant queen grumbled. "Searched all night for that stupid idol thingy and found squat. The only good thing here is the food." She pulled her cooking stick away from the fire, and gave her fish an experimental bite. "Mm, almost tastes like Momma's." A flying shadow passed over her, and she looked up to see one of Boney Island's native geese landing at her camp. "Oh no you don't," she warned the creature, "this one's mine."

The goose bit the tail of Sugar's fish, and tugged.

Sugar tugged the stick in her direction to try and get the fish away from the animal. "Hey, give it!" She then started a game of tug of war with the goose over the fish. As she pulled, she pointed a threatening finger in the bird's direction. "You're next on the menu, you hear me?"

* * *

Back at the spa hotel, Scarlett had joined her teammates for breakfast. The butler placed a plate of eggs in front of her seat.

"Given Sugar's rural background, I'm sure she found a means to sustain herself for one night." She poked her eggs with her fork and scooped up a bite. "To be honest, I'm rather concerned about how useful she'll be in the long term."

Topher conceded a nod at Scarlett's thought. "She did give up the game for a worthless diamond last time."

Duncan snorted at that. "I saw that. Dude, I could've conned somebody into buying that thing."

"And you would've gotten caught by the authorities, and ended up back in juvenile hall where you started," Scarlett retorted, eating a piece of her breakfast. She corrected herself once she swallowed. "Actually, you're no longer a minor, correct? You'd be in jail instead of juvenile hall; my mistake."

Duncan and Topher shared an annoyed look.

"Where are Heather and Alejandro?" Topher wondered, looking around for their two missing teammates.

* * *

Heather and Alejandro turned out to be in the lounge with the massage table shown in the episode's introduction. Heather sat in a lounge chair with her feet up on a footstool, and Alejandro laid face down on the table while the braces-wearing intern delivered chopping massages to his legs.

"Quit hogging the masseuse," Heather snapped, clearly waiting to have a turn she hadn't gotten yet.

Unable to look at her, Alejandro moved his arms to show he was responding to her. "I would, but the sensation of blood flowing through my legs again is frankly delightful. I don't think I'll be giving this up for a while."

Heather raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you can finally move those twigs you call legs again?"

"I wouldn't call them twigs, but that's correct." Alejandro shifted position, lifting his head so he could look at her. Two gray strips covered his eyebrows. He also had a clean-shaven face and a haircut so his hair was restored to the length it usually was in the third season. "It took a lot of therapy and massages last night, but I'm able to use them again. The only thing the massages can't help me with is the fact that you never texted me to find out what happened after you shoved me down a volcano!"

Heather got up from her seat, and went over to point her finger in Alejandro's face. "It's not like you ever texted me." She paused, looking at him with surprise. "Are you getting your eyebrows waxed? Wow."

Alejandro boasted a smile. "They call it manscaping because it's very manly," he explained before returning to the subject at hand, "and I didn't text you because I was trapped in a robot suit!"

"Well," she attempted to respond, but found herself stuck with guilt. She didn't like feeling that, so she reached for his eyebrows to get out of the conversation. "Whatever!"

When she peeled one of the wax strips off, Alejandro let out a loud scream that rattled the hotel.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

The queen bee scoffed at the discussion she had with her teammate. "Please. He's just trying to make me feel guilt for something he thinks is my fault. Well, I'm not falling for him." Realizing her slip, she corrected. "It. Falling for it."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

Contrary to the heated conversation he just had with Heather, Alejandro was smiling in his first confessional he had since getting cleaned up. "I've never found Heather to be so radiant." He pulled at the tips of his freshly cut hair. "Her glossy locks, her perma-frown, the way the hair on her upper lip catches the light when she yells at me," he mused. For a moment, he imagined his crush, and then returned his attention to the camera. "Keep in mind that I was in a robot suit for a year," he reminded the audience.

* * *

The loudspeakers outside whirred to life as Chris made an announcement.

"Attention, campers! It's challenge time! Get your hineys down to the beach, pronto!" The host commanded.

Heather, Alejandro, and the intern all looked up at the announcement. Both of Alejandro's wax strips were off by this point.

Once the announcement was over, Heather glanced at her teammate. "You heard him. Let's get your masseuse-hogging butt down to the beach."

"Of course," Alejandro rose from the massage table while the intern wandered off to take care of another task. "You're free to use it next. That is, if we win and you're still here at the end of the day." He strode away in the intern's direction with a teasing smirk on his face.

She growled briefly before following him.

* * *

At the beach, the area was shown to be divided into two sections. The Hamsters stood on a yellow platform on the left side, and the Vultures stood on a red platform on the right. Up the dividing line, Chris stood in a tower overlooking the challenge site. Excluding Sugar, the rest of Gwen's teammates were already there when she climbed up.

Once Gwen was up, Duncan attempted to greet her, but she walked past him and stood at the other edge. He looked a little stunned at being ignored.

"Ooh, someone's invisible! Harsh," Chris teased, making Duncan try to look unbothered. The camera got a closer look at Chris, who was wearing sunglasses and the matching red beret and ascot from Total Drama Action. "TV relationships, are they ever a good idea?"

A boat horn got Chris's attention. Chef drove the Boat of Losers by the beach with Sugar in the back. When the boat started to pass the Vultures' platform, Chef activated a spring that launched her into the air. She fell onto the platform with an ungraceful flop.

"Any luck finding the invincibility statue?" Gwen asked since she was closest to the fallen camper.

Sugar stood, brushing dirt from her jeans. "No, the only thing I found was a stupid bird that tried to steal my dinner. I had it for dessert."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Sugar is disgusting," the charmer complained. "It's like someone went and found an even worse version of Owen. The only thing he's done that she hasn't is called me 'Al', and that's because she hasn't had a chance yet."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

"She claims she didn't find the idol," Scarlett said, "but she could be lying. In the case she isn't, I need to win this challenge and volunteer for exile."

* * *

"Bonjour, mes campers," Chris greeted the remaining cast and began to explain the challenge. "As some of you will recall our season three's 'Find and Build a Sculpture' debacle. Well, this time our interns have buried 3D puzzle pieces all over the beach." The camera panned across the Hamsters' side then the Vultures' side to emphasize Chris's point. "Seven pieces per team; find all your pieces and assemble them on your platform to recreate one of the landmarks visited on our world tour. First to finish wins."

While listening to Chris's instructions, Beardo raised a hand to his mouth to cover up a yawn.

"You okay, Beardo?" Sammy asked, glancing at him.

"Yeah, just a little sleepy still."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"That's part of the truth," Beardo stated, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's been a long while since I slept in those beds, so I had a hard time falling asleep. The other part is I'm still not sure if I should be here. Everyone else made more drama than I did; instead of making it, I stayed out of it."

* * *

The attention returned to Chris, who more instructions to give. "Since the Villainous Vultures won the first challenge, they get to dig with shovels. Incoming!" He gleefully cued.

Chef tossed a bunch of shovels from the back of the Boat of Losers at the cue. Heather yelped at the flying shovels. She closed her eyes, waiting for one to hit her, but Alejandro intercepted the one intended for her. He caught it with one hand, and then caught his own with the other. Duncan, Scarlett, and Topher all caught their shovels without worry. Gwen covered her face to avoid being hit, but Sugar caught the one in her path.

"I got one," Sugar stated brightly, but because she had caught the shovel with both hands, she couldn't catch the last one that ended up whacking her in the head. She fell back down in a daze, and Gwen cautiously uncovered her face at the noise. Seeing a shovel laying harmlessly at her feet, she picked it up while the remaining shovel stayed in Sugar's possession.

Beardo looked back and forth, and then stepped forward to speak for his team. "Wait, so we don't get shovels?" Still groggy, he tripped and fell off the platform in his attempt. "Oof!" Then the sand around the platform gave way, and he fell into a pit. "Augh!"

"And getting on and off your platforms will be challenging due to the moats," Chris added once the feature became clear. Scarlett knelt over the edge of her team's platform, and prodded the sand with her shovel. Just like the Hamsters' side, a moat formed around their platform. "That are filled with-"

"Crabs!" Beardo finished, cutting the host's speech. The human soundboard struggled to climb out of the moat with a number of crabs clinging to his suspenders and his hair. "Lots and lots of crabs!" He couldn't get a firm grip, and ended up falling back in.

Chris chuckled at Beardo's misfortune. "I don't know why, but it gets funnier every time."

Sugar jumped off her team's platform. "What're we waiting for? Momma needs a night in that spa hotel!" The moment she landed on the sand, a wooden board sprang up and slammed her into the moat. "Ah! Ouch!"

Scarlett smirked happily at Sugar's sounds of pain while Duncan, Alejandro, and Topher all winced at the various snaps.

"And you might want to watch out for booby traps in the sand," Chris added a second time.

While his teammates looked down at Beardo in concern, Shawn inquired, "What are we supposed to dig with?"

Chris shrugged, not apologetic at all. "Sorry. Shovels are for winners only. I guess you'll have to use your hands." He pulled out his air horn. "Your challenge begins now!" The air horn sounded its blare.

* * *

With the camera looking up from below, the Hamsters, sans Beardo, gathered in a team huddle.

"Alright," Shawn and Jasmine spoke at the same time, "we should-"

"Um, what are you doing?" Jasmine asked Shawn.

"I was just going to say since the platform is a circle, we should dig in rings around it. You?" Shawn answered.

"I was going to say we split up the area in sections and we each take one," Jasmine replied.

Sammy decided to act as a tiebreaker, and interjected, "Since our side isn't shaped like a circle, maybe we should go with Jasmine's idea."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Go, team!" Cody put his hand in the middle, quickly followed by Sierra, Sammy, and then Jasmine and Shawn.

"Go, team!" The others chorused.

"Alright, let's move!" Shawn called out afterwards.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Jasmine and I are survivalists. It's kind of in our nature to take charge, and that makes problems when there are two of us like that," he told the camera filming him.

* * *

"What are you imbeciles doing?" Scarlett snarled in a close-up. The scene pulled back to show her team, excluding her and Heather, starting to dig in various spots on their side of the beach. "We can't just start digging in random places. We need to dig from the edges inward."

Standing beside her, Heather argued, "Oh yeah? What if all the pieces are closer to the platform? We need half the team digging close to the platform, and the other half further away." She looked to their digging team for support. "Right, guys?"

"You two quit yer bellyaching," Sugar snapped, "and start digging. We don't need no plan."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Those two are as annoying as all heck. Why would you need a plan for digging?" Sugar snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "That's just stupid."

* * *

"Whee!" Sierra squealed, taking joy in the dig. The camera panned over her team, each member digging in their respective section. Each person was digging at a decent pace, though Beardo was working the slowest.

At his place, Cody was digging when he found a small mound of sand that seemed to contain a beeping red light. Against his better judgment, he pressed it, causing a small explosion underneath him that sent him flying back and a bunch of dirty clothes springing out of the ground, including what looked like Chef's usual shirt, apron, and hat. Oddly enough, the pile also contained a couple female garments. "Whoa!"

Chris chuckled from his station. "Ew! Chef's dirty laundry!" He pinched his nose teasingly. "Pret-tay stin-kay!"

Cody pulled a pair of purple underwear off his face. "Add this to my nightmares." Shuddering, he tossed the article away. At that point, he noticed a few little rocks that didn't look they were naturally scattered enough. Walking over, he got on his knees and dug for a few moments before a little bit of white stone came into view. "Hey, I think I found a piece!" He dug a bit more, and was soon able to pull out what looked like a statue's base.

* * *

Heather leaned in further as she argued, "Fine, we'll work in a circular motion towards the center."

"No," Scarlett retorted, leaning in as well. "That's a spiral. If we do that, we're still missing area that could potentially be hiding fragments of our statue."

Watching the argument from afar, Gwen rolled her eyes. "Some team."

Overhearing the goth girl, Heather said, "Exactly. A team without a leader is like a horse without a head, it just runs around blind."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure a horse without a head doesn't run anywhere," Gwen quipped in reply.

Scarlett nodded in agreement. "Affirmative. See, it's your inferior critical thinking that makes me a more viable candidate to be this team's leader."

"As if I'd let a big-headed nerd like you lead me."

"Tell you what? Let's do this diplomatically, and let the team decide. I think it's obvious who they would choose."

"Fine!"

"Sugar!" "Duncan!"

His shovel stuck in the sand, Alejandro leaned against the handle as he watched the two most volatile members of his team went at it. "Those two will never last on the same team," he said with a tone of amusement.

"Exactly." Topher walked over, carrying his shovel with him. "Which is why we need to get rid of one of them and fast."

"Really?" Alejandro turned to face the wannabe host. "And who would you eliminate?"

"Scarlett," Topher answered without hesitation. He looked around the area cautiously before continuing, "Look. I don't know what you saw while you were in that robot, but Scarlett is bad news. She's smarter than all of us, even you."

Alejandro raised an intrigued eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you more later when we're alone, but can I count on you to vote out Scarlett if we lose tonight?"

The arch villain tapped his chin thoughtfully, and then adopted a sneaky grin. "Very well, you have my word. And then once she's gone, we go after Heather next? Agreed?"

Topher returned the grin. "Deal."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Yes!" The wannabe host pumped his fists. "I've finally got an alliance. I don't know why Al wants Heather gone, but as long as Scarlett is gone next, I don't care."

* * *

Scarlett stood before her teammates, who had been pulled away from their digging to be addressed. "Fellow Vultures, as you may have heard, Heather's intelligence is inadequate to lead our team. Therefore, I offer myself up as team captain."

"Puh-lease," Heather scoffed as her teammates looked in her direction, "if anyone is going to be team captain, it's going to be me." Attempting to put emphasis on the statement, she slammed her shovel down, only for it to make a loud clanging noise upon impact. Heather's eyes widened in happy surprise. "I found a piece. Case and point."

"That was sheer luck, and we can't coast by on that during the entire team phase," Scarlett excused while remaining where she was standing.

Heather walked over to the platform, carrying her piece she found. Stopping near the moat, she tossed the black piece up onto the platform with a strain of effort. "Of course we can't. You know, if you're going to keep making obvious statements like that, maybe you aren't smart enough to be team captain." She put on a smug smile, and closed her eyes haughtily.

Without warning, Scarlett ran over and shoved her into the moat. "Never question my intellect!"

Heather screamed as she fell into the moat. "Ow! Ouch!" She yelped as crabs started pinching her and jumping to attack her.

As Heather suffered an attack from the crabs, the attention shifted to Chris, who said, "Two booby traps! Two puzzle pieces! And two deliciously evil moats! It's still anyone's game, but it won't be for long. Right here on Total Drama All-Stars!"

The footage faded to black for commercial.

* * *

The show faded back in after the break, still showing Chris.

"An hour has passed, and the teams are still tied at one all, which raises a pertinent question," the host whispered. He then raised his voice, shouting, "What is taking so long?!"

The camera pulled back to show the volume of the question. Chef was now in the tower with Chris, and various holes were dug on both sides of the beach with campers in various different positions from when the break started. In response, the Hamsters started complaining that they didn't have shovels to dig with while the Vultures either complained about the sun, or about Heather and Scarlett's argument distracting them from the task.

Chris reclined in his chair, annoyed. "Blah blah blah whine whine," he parroted before sitting upright again, "Hurry up! I have dinner plans!"

Hearing Chris's complaints, Cody abandoned a hole he was digging to start digging elsewhere, and triggered a spring platform like the one in the Boat of Losers that had catapulted Sugar earlier. The geek let out a startled yell as he arced in front of Chris and Chef's tower. Alejandro pointed and laughed at him, but soon regretted it when Cody crashed into his stomach. The collision sent the pair sliding back a few feet. Once they stopped, Cody meekly scurried back to the Hamsters' side before Alejandro could wallop him.

Alejandro stood, ready to give his old competition a chase, but noticed that his and Cody's slide backwards unwittingly dug up some sand and revealed a piece of statue. "What have we here?" He smiled victoriously.

A second black piece of statue landed on the red platform.

"And that's two for the Villains!" Chris declared, updating the competitors on the score.

"Make that two for the Heroes while you're at it," Jasmine remarked, pulling another white statue piece out of the ground. As she tried to pry it out, she accidentally triggered another booby trap. A cannon rose out of the beach, and the explorer only had a second to duck before it fired a boxing glove.

Shawn, who had been digging near the platform, got a punch delivered to his butt. The conspiracy nut yelped as he fell into the moat and started getting attacked. He managed to run right out moments later with crabs hanging from various parts of his body.

* * *

On the Villains' side, Gwen pulled a third piece out of the hole she had been digging. "I found one," she announced.

Duncan walked over to her with a smile on his face. "Way to go, Gwen!" An inconspicuous mound of sand sprang up a wooden plank with a bucket full of sand attached to it. The bucket dunked sand over Duncan's head. The delinquent blinked stunningly while his girlfriend giggled at how stupefied he looked and carried her piece to the rest they had found.

Gwen passed Scarlett, who had given up arguing with Heather in favor of finding a piece to match her. "Success," the evil genius boasted, lifting a piece out of her own hole.

* * *

Beardo walked towards his team's platform with a third piece of their statue in hand. "Guys, look! I found another-" A wooden beam cut him off, rising out of the sand and socking him in his nuts. He made a sound that resembled a strangled trumpet.

Watching the painful booby trap be triggered, Chris offered up a bowl to Chef. "Nuts?"

* * *

Topher reached into his digging spot, and pulled out a really pointy piece of statue. "This must be the top since it's so pointy." He shot a look to the camera. "Hey, world! Check this out! Backhand toss!" Closing his eyes smugly, he tossed the piece over his shoulder in the direction of his team's platform.

Heather had just been walking past the platform when Topher's piece clocked her in the head. While the piece successfully landed on the platform, she fell into the moat for the second time that day. "Augh! Ow!"

* * *

"There we go!" A statue piece resembling a head with a crown landed on the platform. The camera panned, showing Shawn and Jasmine standing a few feet from it. "And not a trap triggered in the process."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "I get it. I'm sorry about that."

Shawn gave her an understanding smile. "Just be a bit more careful next time." He walked away to find another piece, and Jasmine followed a moment later.

* * *

Near the border of the areas, Gwen attempted to dig a hole, but received a quick geyser of water for her troubles. The soaked loner scowled, and Chris and Chef above her bumped fists.

A few feet away from Gwen, Alejandro was on his way to another section that hadn't been touched when his foot triggered another trap. A trash bag stamped with the McLean brand logo shot up into the air, and quickly descended down in Alejandro's direction. Gasping in shock, he swung his shovel like a bat and swatted the bag away. Just out of view, the bag could be seen exploding and pieces of garbage scattering on the ground.

Soon a shriek pierced the air, and a cut to Sammy was shown. Part of an old watermelon, a banana peel, and an old apple core hung from her head, sending up a bad stench. "Ew! Alejandro!"

"Lo siento!" Alejandro called, not entirely apologetic.

* * *

A few minutes of digging later, Sugar approached the border between the two sides. She hummed a little tune, not so subtly peering over at the Hamsters' side. Seeing that all were sufficiently distracted, she stepped over the line and poked around with her shovel. When she heard a clunk, she grinned her buck-tooth grin and dug up one of the other team's pieces, the fifth one. Taking it back to her side, she began to dig a hole deep enough to put it in. Once the piece was in, she covered the hole back up.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

She shrugged cheekily. "Chris never said we couldn't cross over to the other side and steal the other team's pieces to keep them from winning, so I did it." A frown formed on her face. "I got tricked by a lousy rock last time, and I need to win any way I can."

* * *

Sugar continued to smirk at her work until a voice spoke up behind her. "What're you up to, Sugar?" The pageant queen turned around, and found Jasmine staring at her with scrutiny.

"Nothing. Just trying to find my team's pieces." She pointed at Jasmine threateningly. "You should go back to your side and find your own, like the rest of them."

Jasmine jabbed her finger at the sand behind Sugar. "That looks like it's recently been disturbed." Putting a hand on her hip, she gave Sugar a sharp look. "Seems a bit strange to fill a hole back in if you haven't found anything."

The pageant queen scoffed. "It's just a thing we do back on my family's farm. Big whoop."

Shoving Sugar aside, Jasmine swept away the sand with her hand, and found the piece Sugar had just buried. "Aha! I knew it." Picking up the piece, she turned sharply at Sugar. "Takes a lot more to pull one over me."

"Oh whatever, just get back to your own side, would ya?" Sugar passed Jasmine's shoulder, the explorer carrying the statue piece back. Sugar unwittingly triggered another trap by stepping on what seemed like a tile. A hatch in the ground popped open, throwing the sand off its lid and unleashing a swarm of bees. "Shoot! A mad bee swarm!" She dove into the hatch, and pulled the lid shut, leaving the bees to hover furiously over it.

* * *

While Sugar waited out the angry bees, Heather moved to another digging spot. When she was sure he wasn't looking, she threw looks in Alejandro's direction. She specifically focused on his legs and butt before shifting up to his arms.

As she stared, Heather adopted a look of concern.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"I know he was trying to make me feel guilty before," she admitted to the camera. "But I think it's working. I've been thinking about him being trapped in that stupid robot all day. I should be glad that he was lucky to come out of that without burn scars or something, otherwise I'd feel even more awful."

* * *

The queen bee scowled when she saw Scarlett walk over to Alejandro. She pointed elsewhere, probably directing him to find another location to try. As he did so, Scarlett examined the hole, and then selected an untouched area a reasonable distance from it.

Topher slid up next to Heather. "Just want to check if we're on the same page- are you voting out Scarlett if we lose?"

Heather nodded at him. "Oh yeah. She's going down." She faced him, and poked him in the chest. "But I'm still mad at you for making me fall into the moat, so don't expect us to be friends now."

"Not a problem," he said, smiling.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Whoo, that's three votes!" He cheered, pumping his fist. "I just need to convince Gwen, Duncan, or Sugar to vote for her too, and she's out."

* * *

On the Hamsters' side, Cody struggled to carry the team's sixth piece to the platform. He heard the sound of digging, and looked into a nearby hole.

"Sierra, what are you doing?" The geek asked. "You're like twenty feet deep."

Sierra looked up at him from far below. "Oops, sorry! I guess I got carried away. I thought Chris might've not considered this a challenge if the pieces weren't buried very far down." She clambered out of the hole to join her teammate above. "How many pieces do we have now?"

Cody shook his head in reply. "I don't know. Maybe we should- ah!" Sierra picked up him and the piece, and threw them onto the platform. Sitting up, Cody took a quick count of their gathered statue. "We have six pieces out of seven."

Shawn and Sammy approached from their digging areas. "You two start working on the puzzle," Shawn advised before gesturing to himself and Sammy. "We'll keep digging."

"Right on, brother! We're really close- whoa!" Beardo cheered near the shore. He began to walk inland to try a spot closer to the platform, but he triggered another spring like the one Cody did. The human soundboard flew out into the lake, and was hit by a passing boat right before he was going to hit the water.

Up in the tower, Chris pointed out in a very stilted tone, "When we did our safety test, that boat wasn't there."

Chef chuckled beside him. "As if we ever test these things." He and his partner broke down into further laughs.

A trail of bubbles drifted towards the shore until Beardo walked out of the water, wringing out his afro. "If I wasn't awake before, I definitely am now." He reached into his hair, and pulled out a fish similar to the one Sugar had been cooking on Boney Island. After a brief moment of staring at it and wondering how it got into his hair, he tossed it back into the lake.

The camera panned over the Hamsters' gathered pieces. Cody mused out loud, "What makes a girl, a book, and a crown?"

Sierra gasped in realization when the camera pulled back. "Season three, episode five! The Statue of Liberty!"

* * *

With the Hamsters having figured out their statue and in the assembling stage, the Vultures were hurrying to find their remaining pieces.

"I found one!" Sugar announced, hoisting up a piece. "Is this the last one?"

Duncan pointed to himself. "I'll check!" He ran over to their platform, and jumped up to it. He proceeded to count the pieces they had plus Sugar's newly-obtained one. "We have six! We're missing one more."

"I'll help Duncan build the statue. Everyone else, find that last piece." Gwen ran to join her boyfriend.

Duncan looked over the pieces, and then put one in the center. "Whatever it is, it's tall and boxy. It's not thin like the Eiffel Tower, so it must be Big Ben!" He stacked a piece on top of the base.

* * *

Over at the Hamsters' side, Cody and Sierra were examining the statue of the Statue of Liberty.

"We're still missing one piece," Cody told his teammate.

"The torch!" Sierra realized, and then turned to address their team. "Guys! Look for a piece that looks like a torch!"

Cody added, "Hurry! The Vultures are building their statue!"

* * *

Duncan and Gwen stared at the statue of Big Ben, confused.

"What are we missing?" Duncan wondered out loud. "It looks finished to me."

Gwen took a step closer to look at it. "Of course! We're missing the clock!"

* * *

Sammy ceased digging for a moment long enough to wipe her brow. "This is crazy! We've looked everywhere. We should have come across a torch by now."

"Hey, guys?" Beardo's voice rang out, getting Sammy's attention.

The focus cut to Beardo, who was sitting and digging at a hole. He reached in, and pulled out a white torch. "I think I found it!"

"Throw it here!" Sierra waved her arms.

* * *

Topher grumbled as he continued to dig with his shovel. "Where's that stupid clock?" As he moved to make another scoop, he heard a clang. Raising an eyebrow, he reached down and held up a circle with two thin sticks on it. "Yes!"

* * *

Beardo ran a few steps towards his team's platform, and gave his best toss. Sierra caught the torch in her hands, and since she was taller than Cody, lifted it into place. "Finished," she cried, eliciting praise from her teammates.

Chris rose from his seat in the tower. "The Heroic Hamsters win!"

Duncan and Gwen groaned, having just caught the clock from Topher's own throw. Their teammates were shown moaning their loss as well, and the tone changed when the Hamsters were shown cheering, including Sierra hugging Cody. Having known Sierra for the past year, Cody seemed more used to Sierra's antics and ignored it in favor of trying to cheer as best he could in the situation.

"Spa hotel! Spa hotel!" Various heroes chanted.

"Ahem," Chris coughed, putting a pause on the excitement. "I do require a volunteer for exile duty."

Shawn raised his arm. "I'll do it. With my preparation for the apocalypse, a night on Boney Island should be a piece of- agh!" The dark skinned arm of Chef grabbed the back of Shawn's vest, and yanked him off-screen.

Frowning, Shawn waved from the Boat of Losers as it set off to the other island.

As everyone started leaving the beach to move cabins, Gwen slowed to a stop on the beach. She looked at both teams, and sighed heavily.

Cody came up beside her, and gave her a consoling pat on the back. "Don't worry, Gwen. I know you're on the wrong team; you really should be on ours."

Gwen gave the geek a grateful smile. "Thanks, Cody."

He nodded, and continued onward.

"Hey, Gwen! You coming?" Duncan hollered from ahead.

"Yeah, I'll catch up!" The loner replied, the footage fading on her picture.

* * *

Night returned to Camp Wawanakwa, and the elimination ceremony was in session. Beardo and Cody sat in the back row of the peanut gallery, leaving Jasmine, Sammy, and Sierra to sit in the front.

"Welcome, Hamsters! Sit back and enjoy the show," Chris said to the five heroes still on the island. He then turned around to address the villains. "Vultures, it's time for you to vote off your first villain."

The Vultures cast wary glances at each other. Alejandro sat on the far left end of the back row next to Topher and Sugar. In the front row was Gwen on the left end, sitting next to Duncan, Scarlett, and Heather.

Sammy glanced up at Jasmine. "Who do you think it's going to be? I'm pretty sure they all hate each other."

Jasmine hummed in thought. "Tough call. Though, we know for sure Duncan and Gwen are a pair, so it's probably not one of them."

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"I'm not sure who to vote for," he admitted. "Alejandro and Heather are both annoying in their own ways, but the new guys are equally annoying too."

* * *

(Confessional- Scarlett)

She scowled into the camera. "I will not be having Heather undermine my authority on this team. That's why she's going home, tonight."

* * *

Chef held the tray of marshmallows while Chris held the stack of photos that held the votes. Heather, Scarlett, and Sugar were shown watching the host intently.

"The following players are safe for another day." He removed the top page of the photos, revealing Duncan's portrait. "Duncan," he then revealed Gwen's, "Gwen," Sugar's portrait was next to be revealed, "Sugar," The camera cut to the campers, and Alejandro received a marshmallow. "Alejandro, and Topher." The wannabe host was last to receive a marshmallow. "Scarlett, you're on the chopping block for arguing with Heather all day, and being last season's big threat."

Scarlett crossed her arms defiantly. "This doesn't even surprise me at all."

"And Heather," Chris continued as the focus shifted to the queen bee, "you're on the block for the same reason as Scarlett, and because all your old friends still hate you."

Heather glared at her old castmates. "Same to you guys!"

"And tonight's loser is…" Chris revealed. He paused for dramatic effect, and Heather and Scarlett were both shown scowling at him. The camera shifted from the plate with the last marshmallow to Chris's stack of photos, the host removing Topher's picture to show one of the girls' pictures with a big, red X over it. "Scarlett!"

Scarlett stood in fury. "What?!"

A flip transition showed Scarlett floating in the Flush of Shame, her former teammates standing on the dock to watch her leave. "I was your most valuable player! I'm smarter than all of you! You'll regret thi-i-is!" She began to spin around, and disappeared down the flush.

Chris was shown holding the giant toilet's remote. "Yeah, we've never heard that speech before," he sarcastically remarked. Tucking the remote away, he began his outro. "Who's next in line for a porcelain goodbye? Find out next time on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

Scarlett drifted out of an open pipe, and she swam to the surface.

Coughing, she gasped for air. "That was one of the foulest things I have ever experienced. Where am I now?" Looking over her shoulder, she found a mime standing on a sidewalk next to the water, and the camera zoomed out to show the Eiffel Tower. "The Eiffel Tower? That must mean I'm in the Seine." As the footage zoomed back in on her, she raised a hand to her chin. "Though, I don't understand how I could've been flushed from Ontario to here."

"Ah, Scarlett, looks like we found you." A familiar raspy voice spoke up, making Scarlett's left eye twitch. It was then Max and Amy came walking down the sidewalk.

"About time," Amy complained. "Do you know how much time we wasted looking for you? If you had gotten here faster, I could've enjoyed Paris more." The mime, who had been acting the whole time, made an annoyed face at Amy's whining and walked away to find another place to perform.

Scarlett swam to the sidewalk, and pulled herself out of the water. "You didn't have to come find me."

"Actually we did," Max replied, scoffing. "We were forced."

The evil genius raised an eyebrow. "Forced? By who?"

Max waved her question off. "That doesn't concern you. Let's just get back to the stupid plane. We're wasting valuable plotting time."

"I refuse to go anywhere with you until I get answers."

Amy grabbed her by the arm, and started pulling her back the way she and Max came from. "Ignore him. I'll explain on the way. The sooner we get back, the sooner you can help me shut him up."

"Hey, I'm in charge here," Max snapped, jogging after them. "And you owe me! I hope you're ready to be my sidekick again."

Once the trio was out of frame, the mime came back, sneering in their direction. "Finally, they're gone." They went back to performing up until the footage cut.

* * *

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Between her arguing with Heather and Topher's scheming to get rid of her, Scarlett was toast. Unlike Owen, she was a more visible boot. Her elimination at this point was what I alluded to with Topher's vow to get payback after his elimination the previous season. It was also interesting to eliminate someone who could count opposed to someone who couldn't (Lightning). Her pick-up people were Max and Amy because everybody else hated her, and forced Max and Amy to pick her up because those two were the only people that supported her no matter how little they actually did.**

 **I found Alejandro's 'walking on hands' plan to make Heather feel guilty really stupid, so I did away with that. I also switched out Sam's blood drainage with Beardo feeling unsure about his place. A few other minor things happened, like Shawn and Jasmine going through the same thing Jasmine and Rodney did in their first canon episode, or Alejandro and Topher aligning. Now the question is with one of their targets eliminated, can they get Heather out? And I showed that even with Alejandro able to use his legs, Heather does feel some remorse for him getting stuck in the robot.**

 **Next week is Thanksgiving, and since I need time to plan out the teams' strategies for the leechball war, I won't update next week but the week after that. So for my readers that celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the holiday and spend it with your families.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	16. TDAS Episode 3

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you!

 **Jhtm7izim:** Yes, there do seem to be problems in paradise for Gwuncan. You'll have to wait and see who the main villain is.

 **SideshowJazz1:** That's exactly the cast's line of thinking when it came to Scarlett's elimination. I am aware that the Heroes haven't had as much attention as the Villains. That's because they don't have someone like Courtney in their ranks, and by nature, heroes tend to have less chaotic personalities. Rest assured though, that's going to change soon. Like jhtm, you'll have to read to figure out who the main villain is going to be.

 **Xtremexavier15:** Couldn't tell you. I'm not an expert with photoshop, but thanks for liking the chapter though.

 **AnonBrowser:** To each their own about Alejandro's trick with the legs. As for the question about Shazmine, I cannot answer that due to spoilers.

 **Derick Lindsey:** You'll get your answers regarding the immunity idol in time. Beardo's plot is something I came up with since he's the least dramatic of his fellow mergers, and because he's been placed in an all-star cast, he believes that things are bound to get hairy.

 **CosmicWarrior:** Yeah, Gwen needs at least one person on the cast in her corner, and while Duncan is her boyfriend, he's not being very supportive about her issue.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside:** Sorry to hear you feel that way. Hope it doesn't prevent you from enjoying the rest of All-Stars.

 **Xenvic:** Duncan recognizing Big Ben because he was found there was unintentional on my part, though I could've recognized that subconsciously. In my time as a writer, I've discovered some of my more brilliant moments come without me realizing it.

 **Phenomenal Excelsior:** Nice summary of what went down. I found it odd that after a few episodes in, Alejandro suddenly decided to go after Heather, so I wanted his intention to eliminate her clear from the beginning.

 **That British Guy:** According to other reviewers, you're not alone there.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** You have questions that I sadly cannot answer at this time. You may find an answer to at least one of your questions at the end of the chapter, though.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, I wanted to make sure everyone had a reason to be included in this season.

 **Joel Connell:** Thank you for your review!

 **Fangren:** As always, take your time. I found the blood drainage and the leg ruse unnecessary. Alejandro's a master manipulator. He could manipulate Heather into feeling guilty without that. Even if he didn't need to manipulate her when she already felt that way.

 **Sdgeek:** I love that you love so much about the last chapter.

Okay, two important announcements- first, thank you to **Cosmic Warrior** for being Cast Swap's 200th review. This is the first time any of my projects have reached 200 reviews, and that's an amazing feeling. You all are amazing readers for taking the time to leave a comment.

My other announcement- Thanks to **Magic Detective** , Cast Swap now has a TVTropes page! I've taken a look at it, and it's off to a good start, but there's plenty that could be added to it.

With reviews answered and announcements made, let's get ready to play paintball- leech edition!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a season one DVD and some shirts.

Episode 3- Saving Private Leechball

Once again, the episode opened with Chris's narration.

"Last time on Total Drama All-Stars," the host said over footage of Cody being flung into Alejandro, "our heroes and villains went digging for buried treasure." Various shots of both teams digging were shown. "And uncovered some nasty surprises." Cody was shown triggering the trap with Chef's laundry, Alejandro triggered the garbage bag trap, and Sugar was shown diving into the bee trap and closing the lid to avoid the swarm. "Sugar tried to sabotage the Hamsters' chances of winning, but the Heroic Hamsters were victorious." Heather and Scarlett's arguing appeared next, complete with leaning into each other's faces and Scarlett shoving Heather into the Vultures' moat. "Heather and Scarlett spent precious digging time arguing, and thanks to Topher's sneaky talking, Scarlett got the night's flush from her teammates." Topher was seen getting into Alejandro and Heather's ears, followed by Scarlett's descent into the Flush of Shame. "Twelve competitors remain. Which one of them will ride the sewer system next? Find out right now on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

Like the episode previous, the cameras decided to check in on the losing cabin first.

"Ugh, I'd almost forgotten about these crud-tacular cabins," Duncan complained.

The footage cut to inside the boys' side of the regular cabin. Alejandro was on the top bunk on the room's left side, and Topher resided underneath him. Strangely, Alejandro appeared to be slid into a blue sleeping bag.

"Tell me about it," Topher agreed, "after last night in the spa hotel, this seems like a total downgrade."

Alejandro sighed. "Let us hope it is our only visit."

Across the room, Duncan attempted to make himself comfortable on the top bunk. "Ow… what's in this mattress? Rocks?" Hopping down from the bed, he looked underneath. Reaching his hand up, he plucked something from the bed's underside. In his hand, he held a nail. "Nope. Just a bunch of extra nails."

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"I still hate Alejandro. The dude made a lot of trouble on season three," said Duncan. "As for Chris's mini-me, he's not as bad I thought he'd be. Still, whoever wants to be like Chris is kinda messed up."

* * *

Alejandro glanced at his two roommates. "Well… goodnight, gentlemen." He curled up in his sleeping bag, zipping the zipper up under his chin. He let out a content sigh as he laid his head on his pillow.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"After a year in that robot, I find it difficult to sleep if I'm all spread out." The charmer spread out his arms to make his point.

* * *

Focus shifted from the boys' side of the cabin to the girls' side, where none of the three remaining females appeared to be close to turning in for the night.

"Nice going, arguing with Scarlett the whole time. Now we're stuck here," Sugar could be heard snapping.

Inside the cabin, Sugar was laying on a bottom bunk on the room's right hand side. Heather stood beside the bed, scowling at her.

"I wouldn't have needed to argue if everyone just did what I told them to do. I'm the one with the most experience on this team," Heather replied.

Sugar rolled her eyes as the camera panned up to the bed above Sugar, where Gwen was attempting to sleep. "So what? It's like I said, we don't need a plan for digging." The longer Sugar spoke, the more irritated Gwen got.

"And it's like _I've_ been saying, it's everyone's fault for not working together as a team!" The loner sat up as the camera pulled back to show all three girls in the same frame. "Now cram it! I'm trying to sleep."

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

She gasped to herself. "Did that sound villainous? I- I didn't mean to sound harsh, but ooh! Bunking with the bickersons is driving me bonkers."

* * *

An owl began hooting as the camera shifted away from the loser cabin. The camera panned to a tree where Jasmine seemed to have set up for the night. The owl continued to hoot until it heard a cough.

"Um, could you do that somewhere that's not here?" Jasmine politely, but firmly requested as she was shown sitting on the same branch as the owl. The owl seemed to get the message, nodding its head and flying off to find a different perch.

A cut inside the spa hotel showed Sammy entering the girls' bedroom, wearing a blue top and pink shorts that acted as her pajamas. Once she entered, a camera click and flash went off. Sammy flinched at it.

"Augh! Sierra!" She complained just like the day before.

The camera panned over to Sierra, who was sitting on her chosen bed, clicking away at her phone. "Sorry, Sammy! But since Scarlett's gone, I need to step up my info-gathering game before your other friends get voted off." She did her usual little giggle, continuing to type.

Sammy frowned, walking over to the bed beside Sierra's. "Fine, but from now on, no more pictures of me in my pajamas, or before breakfast and after dinner."

Whether Sierra would follow that request or not went unanswered as the scene cut to the boys' room the next door over. Beardo flopped onto a bed, wearing a stained shirt much like his usual one.

"Now this is what I picture life being once I become a famous DJ," he said.

Cody was shown sitting on the bed to the right of Beardo's. "It's not that different for me. My band, the Drama Brothers, we stay in places like this all the time." The geek glanced out the window. "I'm more concerned about Shawn. I get he's a survival expert, but Boney Island's a rough place."

Perhaps Cody had a point about Boney Island. Over there, a group of bears surrounded a tree riddled with claw marks. One bear held an axe, and another had a bottle of ketchup. They growled as one of the cameras stationed on the island panned up the tree, to where Shawn sat on an extended branch with a squirrel.

"I've never seen animals more aggressive than these guys," the conspiracy nut thought out loud, glancing down at the predators. "Good thing I don't plan on moving from here for a while." The squirrel also on the branch threw an acorn at him, but it bounced off his forehead harmlessly. Shawn gave the rodent an annoyed look of disapproval.

* * *

Back at camp, Gwen and Heather were shown to have fallen asleep later in the evening. Once the camera showed the slumbering Sugar, the pageant queen cracked one eye open, darting a look above her and then across the room. She smirked deviously, and then got out of bed, revealing her pink nightgown with a tiara printed on it. She quietly tiptoed across the cabin to a stack of bags, opening a backpack.

Reaching her arm in, she rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a book she might not be familiar with, but the audience would.

Gwen's diary.

"Nobody tells me to cram it," she whispered as background music turned sinister. "Time for some sabotage- pageant style."

* * *

The next morning at the spa hotel, the teammates not exiled to Boney Island all sat down for a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast with a side of orange juice. Even Jasmine, who spends her nights in trees, came in to join her team to eat.

"These eggs are fantastic," commented Sammy. "Amy would kill to have some. Good thing she isn't here."

"I've never had maple bacon before," Beardo said, holding up a few pieces of indicated bacon. "And I never want to eat any other kind of bacon again."

Jasmine poked at her eggs. "I hope Shawn's alright. When we went there to look for Lindsay last season, the place looked pretty bare-boned. I'd be surprised if he managed to find anything to eat."

Cody put his chin between his thumb and index finger, thinking to himself. "So if he can't find any breakfast, maybe we should bring breakfast to him?"

Sierra clapped her hands together. "Oh, Cody! How thoughtful!"

The loudspeakers outside whirred to life. "Attention, campers! Forest recon in five, over!"

* * *

The two teams were dressed for the day, walking through the woods to Chris's indicated meeting point. The Hamsters took up the front of the group while the Vultures took the rear. While they were walking, Heather took Gwen aside.

"Listen," the queen bee said with a false smile, "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. You're right. Teamwork is key. Apology accepted?" She held up a hand for a handshake.

Gwen appeared taken by surprise at the prospect of Heather apologizing, but gladly took it. "Wow, sure."

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"Teamwork?" Heather pretended to gag. "Don't make me barf." A sinister grin appeared over the gagging expression. "I'm still going to take control."

* * *

After Heather continued onward, Gwen was then approached by Sugar.

"So, I wasn't in the whole bickering thing, but if working together gets me a night in that spa hotel, count me in," Sugar said, holding her fist up. "Deal?"

Seeing that the fist wasn't going to slug her in the face, Gwen hesitantly accepted the fist with a bump from her own. "Uh… sure."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Classic pageant tactic. Make friends with the person you sabotage so they don't suspect it's you playing them. As a bonus, I get Duncan on my side too because-" The pageant queen stated.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"Wherever Gwen goes," Heather continued.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Duncan will follow," Sugar finished.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

In contrast to the happy goth that accepted both of the other young women's deals, this goth had the face of someone very experienced with the game. "Yeah, I know they're both trying to play me, and I love it." She pumped her fists in a perky, almost un-Gwen like way. "Finally I have a little power around here. Go, Team Gwen!"

* * *

Gwen and the two girls that just attempted to align with her continued on their way. The camera panned to the guys walking ahead of them, where Duncan was shown specifically glancing back at Gwen. He sighed.

"Something being a pain in your neck?" Topher inquired, noticing Duncan's dismay.

"It's Gwen," Duncan replied, lifting his head to look Topher in the eye. "Ever since we got here, she's been a bit distant. First she was sulking over Courtney not being here, and now she's trying to make an alliance with the other girls."

Alejandro raised a hand. "Maybe we should do the same thing. Those three might not be on the same page, but I bet the three of us are. If we lose, we could take one of the girls out and gain the majority."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"It's obvious that Heather and Sugar are trying to lure Gwen into an alliance. If I can get Duncan and Topher in an alliance, we can take Heather out first, and then she and I could begin a relationship with a clean slate," Alejandro reasoned in the secrecy of the confessional. He realized he had said too much, and attempted to backtrack. "If I was still in love with her, that is."

* * *

The confessional's static transition switched the scene over to Chris, who was once again wearing his army helmet from the series' military-themed challenges.

"At ease, soldiers," he said, saluting the contestants as they arrived at the meeting point. "Let's all welcome back exiled Hamster, Shawn!" At the survivalist's name, Chef drove up in a jeep with Shawn in the passenger seat. He looked a little roughed up, but not as badly as he could've been.

"Hey, Shawn, how was exile?" Sammy asked with concern.

Shawn clambered out of the jeep. "Nothing I couldn't handle. Though, I guess I am kinda hungry." He rubbed his growling stomach. "Spent a lot of the night on the run. Didn't have time to stop and grab a bite."

Jasmine, Beardo, and Cody all stepped forward, each bearing a bit of their team's breakfast. Jasmine had a slice of toast, Beardo some bacon, and Cody an egg.

"Lucky for you, we thought of that. Here," Jasmine handed over the toast.

"Thanks!" Shawn accepted the toast, and swallowed it one bite.

Sammy waited while her teammates gave Shawn the food, a piece of bacon in her hand. Behind her, Sierra held up her phone and snapped a picture.

"Really? Now?" Sammy snapped, a bit annoyed.

Sierra quickly typed on her phone. "Come on. Helping a teammate gain strength for a challenge is great blog material."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Sierra is a nice girl," Sammy began her confession, "but she really needs to know when she is and when she isn't supposed to take a picture."

* * *

Once Shawn had finished his quick meal, Chris began to address the teams. "Welcome to today's experiment with your pain thresholds." The monitor was rolled behind him as he chuckled, making Duncan, Heather, and Sugar all glance at each other nervously. "Get ready for an ingenious twist on the war movie challenge from season two." As he spoke, the monitor displayed another area of the woods. "There are two weapon caches in the heart of this forest." Two crates were shown on the screen, one tall and one short. "The big one is filled with state of the art paintball weaponry, and the little one has a bunch of cruddy, old paintball slingshots. Whoever gets there first gets their pick, and then you've got to pick off the competition.

Most of the Vultures seemed pleased by the challenge's layout, while a majority of the Hamsters were uneasy.

"So, how do we win?" Beardo wondered.

Chris answered, "You get one point for each person you splatter. First team to six points wins, and one of the losers will get a dishonorable discharge tonight Flush of Shame style." He pointed finger guns at the contestants.

Topher rolled his eyes. "Paintball, not very original. Got anything better than that?"

At that, Chris frowned. "Oh yeah… that. One of the conditions of my parole is that I can't be around or use hard projectiles like paintballs, so instead you'll be using leeches!" Chef walked up beside him, and held up a squirming leech from a bucket he had been carrying. While the contestants didn't agree on a whole lot, they all agreed in muttered disgust that the leeches were gross.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

She held out her hands in incredulity. "Leeches? Chris is really making us earn the million this year." Folding her arms over her chest, she muttered, "Jerk."

* * *

"As winners of yesterday's challenge," Chris added, "the heroes get a full minute head-start."

The Hamsters cheered for their advantage, to the dismay of the villains.

"Ready… set!" Chris counted down as Chef fired off a leech from a small, purple hand gun. The leech landed on Topher, horrifying the wannabe host as he struggled to pry it off.

"Hey!" Topher yelped in complaint.

The Hamsters took off at a run when the timer displaying their minute advantage began ticking down. All six members cheered as they gained ground against their opponents.

"Well, that's just great," Heather nagged, "they've got two people completely at home in the woods on their side. We're hosed."

"Maybe they'd be slowed down if they still had that Owen feller," Sugar spoke up.

" _Maybe_ if we had just worked together as a team, we'd be the ones with a head start," Gwen pointed out.

Duncan walked over, joining the conversation. "Gwen's right. We all probably hate each other's guts, but we do all have the same enemy- them. So, let's put all the crap we have against each other aside for the challenge, and deal with it after we win the next advantage."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Alejandro agreed, helping pluck the leech off Topher's forehead. He flicked the leech to the ground.

With less than five seconds left on the timer, Chef cocked his leech pistol as Chris announced, "Villains, you're up in three… two… one!" Chef shot a second leech into the air. Like the first, it landed on Topher, except in his hair this time.

"Oh come on!" Topher griped dramatically.

Chris shared a chuckle with Chef, high-fiving the cook as the Vultures jogged away to make up for lost time.

* * *

"This run better be less than a mile," Cody commented as he ran through the woods with his team.

As he followed his teammates, Beardo panted from the back of the group. "Can we slow down a bit? I'm not in the greatest shape, you know?"

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

In the outhouse, the human soundboard looked much less exhausted than when he was running. "I made the right choice not running that carriage back and forth, but I didn't even get a chance to jump. The only real thing I've done to help my team is find puzzle pieces. People usually have a purpose on a team, like team captain or something, but what's my purpose?"

* * *

"Does anyone know where the heart of the forest is, exactly?" Sierra asked when Beardo's confessional was over.

Jasmine and Shawn, leading the pack, immediately came to a stop, both proclaiming, "I'll go get a better look!" Both of them stared at each other, then pointing to themselves as they said, "No, I'll go look!" They pointed at each other, getting rather annoyed by the gag, "Stop saying what I'm saying!"

The rest of the team stopped as the two nature experts had done. Beardo leaned over, panting as Cody scratched his head awkwardly. "This is kinda weird."

"I know. They've never done something like this before," Sammy agreed. She walked over to her two friends, who were starting to growl. "Calm down," she attempted to mediate, "Shawn, you just came back from exile. Let Jasmine go check."

Shawn huffed, turning away. "Fine."

Jasmine stood upright from when she was bent over, almost butting heads with Shawn. "I'll be right back." She jumped up into a pair of nearby trees, bouncing off their branches in a rapid ascent. The rest of the team, sans an irritated Shawn, watched the tall explorer in awe.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"In places like the woods, Shawn and Jasmine both want to take the lead. Whatever's happening to them didn't happen when we went hiking earlier this year, so maybe the competition is getting to them?" Sammy considered the events that just went down.

* * *

Up on a high branch, Jasmine scanned the area for a moment before pointing in a direction. "There!"

Jumping down from her perch, she joined her team as they ran down a path. Not too long after, the villains arrived at where they had stopped.

"Okay, they're heading left," Gwen said, pointing. "If we go right, we may be able to cut them off."

Heather gave her a thumbs-up. "Great idea." She and the team went down the path next to the one the heroes had taken.

"Go Vultures!" Alejandro chanted as they went.

"Let's do it!" Topher added.

On the Hamsters' path, Beardo continued to lag behind the rest of his team. Ahead of him, Sierra pointed to something as she ran. "We're almost there!"

"Great, because I'm almost out of steam," Beardo remarked.

Cody chuckled. "Heh, almost sounds like that online gaming site called Mist."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"I've played a few games on that website. When I win, I want to use some of the money to fund the creation of my own game on there," the geek explained. "I also want to use the money to help the band. We could really use it." Sheepishly, he rubbed the back of his neck.

* * *

The heroes ran into the clearing with the crates, the smaller one being closer than the bigger one.

"Grab the big crate!" Jasmine commanded.

"Thanks for the tip," the voice of Duncan replied, causing Jasmine to look over and see Duncan knock her over with his elbow. Jasmine fell to the ground, leaving Shawn and Sammy to trip over her long legs.

Cody, Sierra, and Beardo managed to stop in time before they joined the pile of fallen teammates while the villains ran for the big crate.

"Where did they come from?" Beardo queried to his teammates, breathing hard.

Heather blew a raspberry while Topher declared, "The villains have the upper hand!"

The fallen heroes rose to their feet. Sammy led her team to the small crate. "Come on. We can still get the small crate." She popped the lid off the smaller box, pulling out a bucket full of leeches. "Ew… I didn't think paintball could get this disgusting."

The rest of the team picked out supplies from the crate, including slingshots. Shawn snatched another leech bucket, but held it at arm's length.

"They're like little wiggling zombies," he stated, pausing to think about his comment. "Or maybe vampires, since they suck blood. Still bad either way."

At the bigger crate, the Vultures cheered at getting the bigger prize since they had been dealt a bad hand earlier.

"Let's rock!" Duncan approached the crate, punching the side of it. The entire container broke open to reveal, a cannon along with several high-grade paintball guns modified to shoot leeches.

Duncan, Topher, Heather, and Sugar all immediately cried, "I'll take the cannon!" They gave each other a stink-eye, shouting, "No, I'll take the cannon!"

Gwen walked over to them. "We'll use it as a team! We just discussed a few minutes ago that we need to work together, or we'll lose another player and another advantage."

"She does have a point," Alejandro agreed.

The four trying to claim the cannon glanced at each other, huffing a simultaneous, "Fine."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"This is perfect. With Heather focused on trying to earn Gwen's favor by being a team player, she won't see my setting up her elimination coming."

* * *

"Glad we're in agreement." Gwen smiled at the attempt to cooperate. "Let's start doing that then. Fire the cannon!"

Topher ran over to the cannon, taking control of it. "On it!" He pulled the rope trigger, launching a ball of leeches. Out of frame, a boom microphone fell to the ground as the team winced. An intern came into the picture, coated in leeches, and collapsed in front of them.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

She chuckled embarrassingly. "Whoops… being in charge of a bunch of villains is harder than it looks."

* * *

A cut showed Chris watching Gwen's confessional from the monitor room. As she looked away from the camera, the host paused the video to address the camera filming him.

"Tell me about it," he chuckled. "The villains are off to quite the start, but which team will make it to the finish? Find out when we come back on Total Drama All-Stars!" On a far shot of the island, the footage faded to commercial.

* * *

When the show returned, the Hamsters were wandering the woods with their new gear. Since having stopped to get their gear, Beardo appeared less winded.

Sammy sighed. "Of course the villains get machine gun launchers while we get slingshots. We'll never beat them now."

Cody tried to cheer her up with a smile. "Sure we can," he began to say.

"As long as we're stealthy and score first," he and Sierra finished together, high-fiving at the synchronized thinking.

"She does bring up a good point though," Beardo spoke up. "How can we go about doing that? They have a cannon, guys, a cannon!"

Shawn scoffed. "If Jasmine didn't try to argue with me about who was going to look for the forest's heart, we would have it instead."

Jasmine jabbed her finger at him. "Don't you start. You're just as guilty as I am."

"Um, guys?" Sammy cut in meekly, not wanting to get in the middle of the argument. "Shouldn't we figure out how to beat the villains?"

Shawn pointed at himself with his thumb. "Leave that to me. With all the prep I've done for the zombie apocalypse, creating a strategy for beating them should be easy."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "We're dealing with living people. Your training won't work in a war scenario like this one."

"Excuse you." Shawn frowned up at her. "Fighting zombies _is_ a war scenario. My training would totally work."

"Zombies aren't _real_ , Shawn! And even if they were, they can't think, not like the people we're actually dealing with right now!"

"They are real! You're just blind to the conspiracy the government is trying to cover up!"

Sammy stepped between them, pushing them away from each other as they got heatedly closer. "Stop it! Fighting isn't helping."

"He/she started it!" The two arguing heroes glared over the cheerleader's head.

"Well, I'm ending it." Sammy glanced at the two of them. "Look, you guys probably have your own ideas about how we should do this. That's fine, but we need a solid plan we can all work with."

Cody shrugged his shoulders. "Why don't we just do what Sierra and I came up with? The villains' guns are bigger than our slingshots, so they can't move around as easily as we can. Plus they've got the cannon. As long as they have that, they're sitting loons."

"Yeah, we're less likely to be spotted if we split up too." Sierra added, "It might be a good idea for you two to have some time apart to cool off anyway."

Shawn and Jasmine turned their backs on each other. "Fine," they said at the same time, tossing a look at each other upon the realization they spoke at the same time again.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"I never realized until today how annoying Shawn's talk about zombies can be. Zombie this, zombie that," Jasmine said, making motions back and forth with her hands to emphasize her point. "He always finds a way to bring zombies into discussion, and tactics for fighting them aren't going to help us win the challenge."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

The conspiracy nut snorted at the beginning of his confession. "Zombies aren't real. Hah! We'll see what's real after I win us the challenge with everything I've learned."

* * *

Elsewhere in the woods, the Vultures struggled to move their new cannon with them. It took the combined effort of four team members to move it.

When they stopped to take a break, Gwen suggested, "We're easy targets like this. Maybe we should ditch the cannon."

Topher nodded. "Yeah, this thing isn't as much of an advantage as it is a disadvantage." He gave the cannon a light kick with his foot.

"We're also too exposed as a group together like this," Alejandro advised, his gun strapped to his back. "We need to split up into pairs."

"Great idea!" Sugar smiled, taking Gwen's arm to the goth's surprise. "I'll go with Gwen."

Heather came over, tugging on Gwen's other arm. "No, I'll go with Gwen."

"Hey, she's my girl!" Duncan butted in. "If anyone's going with Gwen, it's me."

As the three started arguing who should team up with Gwen, none of them realized just how much attention they were attracting from their opponents.

A leech flew onto the scene, attaching itself to Topher's coiffed hair. "Seriously, again?" He started attempting to pry it off.

"Oh em gee, I did it!" Sammy exclaimed delightedly from behind some bushes. Her delight turned to horror. The cheerleader ran from her hiding place, crying 'Eek!' as she attempted to flee from the rapid-fire leeches being shot at her.

Duncan, Gwen, Heather, and Alejandro shot rounds at the retreating cheerleader. After a few moments of firing, they stopped.

"She got away," Alejandro said, lowering his gun. "If she's here, the others are bound to be close by."

Heather smirked. "Her mistake then. Come on, let's get 'em!" She turned to follow Sammy's direction, but gasped at something.

A leech flew into contact with her hairline. "My hair," the queen bee screamed, following Topher's attempt to pull the bloodsucking creature off.

Cody gave a little laugh and a wave before running off, leeches hitting where he had just been standing.

"You little twerp! What is wrong with you?" Heather shouted at the fleeing geek.

"That's two points for the heroes, and zilch for the villains!" Chris announced over the loudspeaker.

Gwen frowned at the score. "Duncan, you're with me. Alejandro, you go with Sugar." She and Duncan headed deeper into the woods, leaving their remaining teammates with the eliminated ones.

"I'd do better if I went by myself," Alejandro huffed.

Sugar slung an arm around him. "Nonsense, Al! We'll make a great team." She didn't notice the sigh that passed through Alejandro's lips.

* * *

Duncan and Gwen arrived in the last area they saw Cody, their guns poised to fire.

"Maybe once you shoot Cody with a leech, he'll get the hint you're not into him," Duncan quipped as they searched around.

Gwen glanced at her boyfriend. "You really think I'd go that far to tell Cody I'm not interested?"

"Kinda," Duncan admitted, staying cautious. "The pipsqueak's a pest. He's been after you since we first came to the island."

The loner lowered her gun. "Hey, Cody's _not_ a pest! An annoying little brother maybe, but he's not that bad."

A doorbell sound rang out, making the pair flinch. A brown bush that almost looked like hair sprang up, revealing Beardo with his slingshot. "Ding dong! The villains are down!" He shot a leech at Gwen.

Gwen jumped to one side, and fired a round at the human soundboard. Beardo let out yelps with each hit.

The camera panned to him, showing the leeches framed around his face, swelling with his blood.

He groaned, then collapsed behind the bushes.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make a witty line before firing," Beardo admitted, tearing a leech off and dropping it into a bucket at his feet. "Or making noise beforehand."

* * *

Duncan continued looking around for opposing players. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a bit of purple hiding behind a tree.

"The villains score a point, but the heroes are still in the lead with two!" Chris updated the score.

Attempting to use Chris's announcement as cover for any noise, Sierra prepared her slingshot. "If I can get Gwen or Duncan, Cody will be so proud of me," she whispered as she aimed her weapon. Though she had prior experience of using a slingshot from the African safari challenge, the squirming leech in her grasp made it difficult to fire an accurate shot. "Oops," the blogger griped as she let the leech fly, believing to have misfired.

The leech bounced off a nearby rock, off a corner where a tree branch met the tree trunk, then finally a squirrel that had been about to eat an acorn. It moved fast, but Duncan was faster. The punk dove between Gwen, who had her back turned to the leech, and the leech.

"Noooo," he cried as the footage slowed down with editing to capture the moment.

When the footage resumed regular speed, Gwen gasped upon turning around to see Duncan on the ground with a leech stuck to his butt.

"Duncan!" She nearly screamed.

From her firing post, Sierra pumped her fist. "Yay! Looks like I didn't miss the shot after all." She turned her attention back to her successful hit, only to see Gwen glaring at her harshly. "Um… no hard feelings?"

Gwen responded by firing a round at her.

"Hehe! They feel like kisses," Sierra said deliriously, falling over as she was drained of blood.

"The villains score again, but the heroes still lead three points to two!" Chris reported in an update.

Once she was sure Sierra was down, Gwen dropped her weapon to kneel beside her boyfriend. "Wow," she said, "I can't believe you just took a leech for me."

Duncan rolled over onto his butt, squishing the leech that was stuck to him. "Well, I'm not a pest, or an annoying little brother," he replied, attempting to make light of their previous conversation.

While they shared a look, a leech hit Gwen's forehead. She gave a startled yelp.

Behind some bushes, Jasmine smirked. "Maybe next time, don't have a moment in the field, okay?"

* * *

Elsewhere, Alejandro and Sugar patrolled another part of the woods.

Chris announced, "It's four to two, heroes! Two more points, and the Hamsters win!"

"Great," Alejandro sarcastically said, "now it's up to the two of us."

"Yeah, isn't that great?" Sugar commented, either missing or ignoring the sarcasm in his tone.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Once again, it falls to me to earn my team's victory. But with Sugar slowing me down, victory is looking less likely by the minute," the arch villain stated.

A knocking sound came from outside. "Hey, Al? You almost done in there?" Sugar's voice asked, muffled by the wall between herself and the camera. Alejandro visibly cringed at 'Al'. "We got goody-goody heroes to track down."

Returning his gaze to the camera, Alejandro whispered, "Perhaps I ought to start planning on voting out Heather."

* * *

Alejandro glanced around as the frame panned to Sugar walking behind him. "You know, I don't get why you're even looking down here where we are. You should be looking up in the trees. Shawn sleeps up there all the gosh darn time anyway."

The arch villain froze at his teammate's observation. "The trees?" He rolled his eyes skyward.

The camera panned up a tree until it came to a branch where Shawn, his slingshot locked and loaded, stood. His eyes widened.

"Oh man," the conspiracy nut panicked. "My position's been compromised." In his fretful state, he accidentally fired his leech. "No!"

Somehow, the camera followed directly behind the leech in its flight path. As it neared Alejandro, who appeared to get bigger and bigger in the shot, he gasped and ducked out of frame. A blur of pink and blue clothes and white skin were briefly shown before the camera angle changed to the usual side view.

The scene zoomed out to show the leech had attached to Sugar's midsection, whereas Alejandro had dropped to his hands and knees.

Sugar scowled at the little bloodsucker. "Don't you dare touch my belly fat!"

While Sugar was occupied, Alejandro grasped his gun and fired some rounds up at Shawn.

Shawn ducked and jumped before running across his branch, leaping to a lower one. He then leaped from that branch down to the ground, where he tucked and rolled into a run.

"Stop!" Alejandro called after the retreating hero. He began to chase him. "Surrender!"

"I'll never surrender to anybody!" Shawn shot back. Alejandro fired more leeches at him, but he weaved away from every one.

As they ran past some bushes, Jasmine emerged behind the shrubbery. She sent a skeptical look in their direction. "What is he doing?"

Alejandro pursued Shawn, occasionally dodging a leech that the conspiracy nut fired back at him with his slingshot. Something about the woods struck his mind. "This is starting to look familiar…" He gasped, realizing the reason why. "Ay no…"

The chase reached a familiar clearing. Heather and Topher were nowhere to be seen, but something was still there.

Alejandro tried to stop him, constantly firing his ammunition. Once he was close enough, Shawn made a dive. One of the flying leeches came really close to making contact with his hairy chin, the moment emphasized in slow motion.

Due to constantly using his ammo, Alejandro was surprised to see no more leeches come out of his gun, the weapon instead making a clicking sound.

"Game over," Shawn said, making Alejandro look up from his clicking weapon. The arch villain inhaled sharply.

Shawn pulled the cord of the cannon.

With how big of a shot the cannon made, it wasn't possible for Alejandro to avoid it.

In seconds, leeches were attached all over his body, from his head to his chest to his legs. Growing weak, Alejandro dropped his gun as he fell onto his back.

Shawn pumped his fist. "Yeah!"

"This just in- with a score of six to three, the Hamsters win! And because of some surprising developments!" Chris declared.

The latter bit of his announcement had Shawn scratching his head. "Wait, what does he mean by that?"

* * *

A fading transition shifted to the evening, where the season's third ceremony was about to begin. For the second time in a row, the Hamsters occupied the Peanut Gallery while the Vultures were seated at the bonfire for a second time.

"Welcome back, Villainous Vultures," Chris greeted the losing team. "Second elimination in a row. Way to lose. Now, time to cut someone loose. It's voting time!"

Gwen glared at Heather. "Decided to steal my diary again, huh? You haven't grown up since the first season at all, have you?"

Heather raised an eyebrow at the accusation. "What are you talking about? I haven't touched it at all since the talent show."

"A likely story."

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

Heather appeared indignant when the footage began. "She's accusing me of stealing her diary again. You know, if she didn't want it to be stolen in the first place, she should've just left it at home like a normal person!"

* * *

Sierra leaned over to Cody, asking him, "Who do you think is going home? My money's on Alejandro."

"Unless he can convince them," Cody replied, beginning a thought that he and Sierra finished together, "to cut Heather!" They shared another high-five.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

Cody rubbed the back of his head. "When Sierra first joined the show, I couldn't really connect with her since she was doing a lot of weird things. Now that we've been friends for a while, we tend to think alike about a lot. Who would've thought one of my biggest fans could become one of my best friends?"

* * *

Chef arrived with the marshmallows at the time Chris announced, "The votes are in! But, before I announce our loser du jour, I need a volunteer for exile on Boney Island." Chris took the plate from Chef.

Sierra eagerly waved her hand. "Ooh! Me! Me!" All her teammates looked at her, surprised to hear her voluntarily spend time away from Cody. "I'll do it!"

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"While I'm here, I'm hoping to get info on Boney Island for my blogs. What better way to get there than to volunteer for exile instead of waiting for a challenge to take us there?" The blogger explained, an excited smile on her face.

* * *

"Okay," Chris agreed slowly, equally surprised as anybody else.

Chef escorted Sierra away, Cody and Sammy both wishing her luck.

"Alrighty then, onwards and flush-wards." Chris resumed the ceremony, taking a marshmallow off his plate. "The following villains are safe- Gwen!"

Gwen smiled, happy that she wasn't being voted off when she had led the team.

"Topher!"

The wannabe host grinned, but dropped the happy expression when he grew annoyed at the marshmallow bouncing off the exact spot on his forehead that kept getting hit with leeches.

"Duncan!"

Chris flicked a marshmallow in the punk's direction, and picked up the second to last treat.

"And Sugar!"

The pageant queen blinked as the marshmallow got caught in her hair. She reached up and pulled it out.

The camera shifted to Alejandro and Heather, the only two without a symbol of immunity.

"Heather, Alejandro, you're on the edge. Heather for being a pain in the butt, and Alejandro for failing to take out Shawn before he got you," Chris summarized.

Alejandro folded his arms over his chest. "I'll only say that Shawn appears to be a formidable enemy."

Tossing away the plate, Chris taunted them with the marshmallow in his hand. "And tonight's flushee is…"

Heather and Alejandro both shot Chris a desperate look. The queen bee scowled hard. Alejandro frowned, wishing to hear the final result.

"…Nobody!"

The two villains sighed in relief.

"What?" Duncan and Gwen asked.

"Huh?" Sugar and Topher chorused.

Chris walked over, pulling another marshmallow from one of his shirt pockets. He tossed Alejandro and Heather each a marshmallow.

"We had a lot of juicy stuff today, and I'm not ready to see it come to an end just yet," the host explained. "A Vulture acted more like a hero, and things are getting villainous on the Hamsters. To preserve that drama, we're doing a little reshuffling. So pack your bags and switch your teams, Duncan and Shawn."

Every camper present gasped in shock.

Shawn stood up from the peanut gallery. "Me? Why do I have to be a villain?"

"And why do I have to be a lame-o hero?" Duncan demanded.

"Because Duncan sacrificed himself for his girlfriend hero-style, and Jasmine and Shawn got into a very un-hero-style argument. Since Shawn fired the first shot, he's the one that's switching," Chris explained then ordered, "Now move it!"

Sighing, Duncan rose from his seat. "It was fun while it lasted." He planted a kiss on Gwen's cheek, walking over to the peanut gallery. Behind him, Gwen inhaled softly, touching her hand to the cheek Duncan had kissed.

He and Shawn met mid-way between the bonfire and the peanut gallery. "Uh, good luck with being a villain," the punk said awkwardly.

Shawn scratched his neck. "You too, with being a hero and everything."

The two males shared a short nod, and then went to their new teams.

Duncan sat down in the peanut gallery, sitting where Shawn had been moments before. Jasmine, Sammy, and Beardo all gave him uneasy glances while Cody downright glowered at him.

Shawn sat in Duncan's previous seat. Beside him, Gwen averted her gaze, choosing instead to look at the hand she had used to touch her cheek.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"Something was different about that kiss Duncan gave me," Gwen admitted. "All the times he did it before, I felt a good feeling in my chest, but this time I didn't feel anything. It's like… like the spark is _gone_."

* * *

Chris chuckled, standing on the Dock of Shame. "Today was full of surprises, huh? Tune in next time for more sweet, sweet mayhem on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Surprise! The non-elimination happened early! For the same reasons Chris explained, there's so much going on with the cast that I can't cut anybody without cutting their story short. And because there's no elimination, that means no bonus clip.**

 **Plot developments! Mal's canon plot of breaking things/sabotage seemed like something Sugar would do. Since Heather and Gwen hate each other's guts, she figured if she were to steal Gwen's diary, Gwen would automatically accuse Heather, and then tried to befriend her to stay off Gwen's radar. As for Jasmine and Shawn having a fight, I needed something to make them mad at each other since they were on good terms for their whole run last season, like canon's Shawn hitting Jasmine with the dueling stick. In a challenge requiring strategy, I thought they would have different ideas. Jasmine getting annoyed with Shawn's zombie obsession was a natural progression of their plot, to me at least. Sure, she thought it was cute when they first met, but after knowing each other for a while, I could see it getting on her nerves. I know it got on mine.**

 **Duncan and Shawn swapping teams was decided because of three reasons. The first reason is I want to fix Duncan's hero story so that it doesn't run too long and doesn't end with him getting arrested. The second reason is with Shawn on another team, he can't patch things up with Jasmine as easily and quickly that way. The third reason is because we never got a proper guy-guy team swap. We got Izzy-Katie in Island, Izzy-Sierra in World Tour, Jo-Scott in Revenge of the Island, Duncan-Courtney in All-Stars, and Max-Sky in Pahkitew Island, but none of them involved two boys.**

 **Instead of treating the cannon as dead weight or using it for friendly fire, I wanted it to play a role in the challenge's ending. That's how we got Shawn becoming victorious over Alejandro.**

 **Thank you once again to Magic Detective for creating a TVTropes page for Cast Swap, and to those who have worked on it so far. Keep it up, there's lots that can be added to the page.**

 **Now, it's time for a serious talk. Let me remind everyone that plagiarism is Not Cool. This year I have experienced two instances of plagiarism with my fanfiction, the second of which I discovered one or two weeks ago. I'm not naming names, but I already handled the first one and am dealing with the second. Needless to say, I am _furious_ that this even happened and that the second instance managed to get so far in plagiarizing my work without being caught. If you find another story that looks like it's plagiarizing the work of another fanfic writer you might have already read, let the original writer know. Some of my friends have experienced this, and I made sure to inform them as soon as I found out. Seriously guys, plagiarism is Not Cool.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	17. TDAS Episode 4

**Nicky Haugh-** Thank you!

 **SideshowJazz1-** Thanks! Looking forward to what you add. Sugar is definitely more than her hatred of Ella.

 **StarHeart Specials-** Thank you! There's lots to come with all the points you highlighted.

 **Xtremexavier15-** I already answered your question.

 **Fear the Darkness Inside-** Let's just say one of them deals with it better than the other.

 **Magic Detective-** Interesting prediction.

 **AnonBrowser-** Yeah, last chapter had lots of surprises. As for your question, I tried to plan them all out in advance so I knew how much space I had for each plot in the narrative.

 **Phenomenal Excelsior-** I couldn't really cut anybody short, that's why I had the non-elimination early. And the team swap is going to be interesting.

 **That British Guy-** I needed to swap somebody, and Chris would've made sure it was anybody but Gwen since he likes tormenting her so much.

 **CosmicWarrior-** Looks that way, doesn't it?

 **SilentSinger948-** I'm glad that you're enjoying everything.

 **Lowland Warrior-** I responded to your review in a PM.

Friendly reminder that Cast Swap now has a **TVTropes page. Feel free to add to the page; I appreciate the effort that has already been put into making it.**

Now that reviews are answered, who wants pancakes?

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one and some shirts.

Episode 4- Food Fright

"Last time on a very special episode of Total Drama All-Stars, it was all about teamwork," Chris narrated over a clip of Gwen rallying the Vultures, "or a lack thereof." Jasmine and Shawn were shown getting angry at each other. "The challenge? An epic leechball battle brought out everyone's inner psycho." Each contestant eliminated from the challenge were shown getting hit with leeches.

"There was no elimination, but that's because Duncan's unexpected act of valor and Shawn's unforeseen feud with Jasmine inspired me to switch their teams. Now Duncan's a hero, Shawn's a villain, and I'm a genius," the host boasted over footage of the pair's swap at the bonfire. The replayed footage cut to Chris on the Dock of Shame. "Oh, it's going to get nasty. Will the villains crush the heroes' winning streak? Find out now on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

The island experienced a change of weather for the first time since the season began. A steady downpour was in the forecast for the early morning.

Due to the loser cabin being old, it had a few leaks. The leaks didn't seem to bother Alejandro and Topher, since both were comfortably asleep in their bunks. Some banging rang out, startling them awake. Shawn's head poked up in the foreground, blocking the cabin's rear window from view.

As Alejandro and Topher screamed, Shawn instinctively shouted, "Zombie!"

The door to the cabin burst open, revealing a large, familiar figure in the dark. Even though the figure was familiar, all three boys still shrieked.

None other than Chef Hatchet stepped into the light, hauling a large, black bag over his shoulder. With a devious grin, the cook tossed the bag towards the middle of the room. The bag burst in a dusty explosion, making the boys cough roughly.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Since it's raining, I needed to leave my tree in case lightning hit it. That, and getting hypothermia would hinder my ability to protect myself against the zombies. Too bad I forgot about Chef and his gruel," Shawn explained, the rain visible in the outhouse's windows. His head and shoulders were covered in said gruel.

* * *

Curled up in his sleeping bag, Alejandro spat a little bit of gruel out of his mouth. Like Shawn, his face was caked with Chef's revolting breakfast. "Disgusting," he said to his cabin mates, "I bet the girls are not treated this cruelly." His gaze went to the wall upon hearing familiar shouts from Heather. He smirked to himself. "I stand corrected."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

Sugar pulled a clump of gruel off her head. "I don't get what the big deal is about Chef's stuff. I've had way worse than this." She tossed the clump into her mouth. "Dang this stuff is good. I wonder if I could get Darwin's Food Safari to put this on their menu."

* * *

In the girls' side of the cabin, Sugar continued to eat the gruel. Meanwhile, Heather paced around the room. She stopped by Sugar, her scowling face coated in gruel much like Alejandro and Sugar's faces were. Splatters of gruel decorated the walls.

"Ugh! Chef just had to drop off our awful breakfast when Gwen was out. She definitely planned for this," Heather ranted.

Sugar shook her head. "Nah," she said, spewing bits of gruel as she talked, "she's probably still upset about you stealing her book." She ate another chunk of gruel. Heather looked at her with an annoyed expression.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"I didn't steal Gwen's diary!" Heather snapped to the camera. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Geez! You do something one time, and people never let you live it down!" She glanced to the side. "I wouldn't be surprised if Chris had something to do with this."

* * *

The rain continued to fall as the scene switched over to the spa hotel. The camera zoomed in on the better cabin as sounds of chewing could be heard.

A cut inside showed Cody, Beardo, Sammy, and Jasmine seated at the table, eating their breakfast. There was a distinct lack of pancakes, but plenty of bacon, eggs, and toast. While his teammates had a reasonable spread on their plates, Cody's sweet tooth urged him to drown his bacon in syrup.

Duncan walked into the dining area, dressed for the day and yawning.

"Oh! Good morning, Duncan!" Sammy greeted, pausing before she bit into her toast.

Duncan stopped approaching the table, and gave the cheerleader a bewildered look.

Jasmine noticed his expression. "What's wrong? Nobody ever say 'good morning' to you before?"

"Um, no?" Duncan answered slowly. "I was on the villains' team. Villains don't say 'good morning', they don't say 'good' anything."

Beardo glanced out the window. "With all that rain out there, I can imagine why nobody would want to say that." As he looked away from the table, Cody stabbed a piece of his bacon rather bitterly and put it in his mouth.

"You're just going to have to get used to greetings in the morning, because that's what we do," Sammy said as Duncan took the same seat he had at breakfast in episode two, sitting right next to Jasmine's head of the table.

Jasmine nodded in agreement with Sammy. "She's right. Now, buck up and eat. We need to be ready for whatever challenge Chris has in store for us today."

Duncan rolled his eyes as the butler placed a plate of eggs and bacon before him. He glanced down the table to Beardo. "Whatever. Dude, pass the salt down here?" The salt shaker slid down to his spot. As he sprinkled some salt onto his breakfast, the camera panned to Cody, who wore the same look as he did last night.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Seriously? We had to get Duncan?" The geek protested. He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the outhouse wall. "Can we get Gwen instead? At least her being a hero is right."

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"Man, I miss my villainous babe. I bet she's having a blast since she's not on this lame team."

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

Gwen had her legs up on the outhouse seat with the rest of her body, her arms wrapped around them. "This is the worst! I only came back to Total Drama to try and patch things up with Courtney, and she's not even here. I'm on the villains' team without Duncan, and now I might not even have feelings for him anymore." She began to cry into her knees. Her wails could be heard by the camera prepared to film her when she came out.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"Duncan doesn't seem like a bad guy up close," Jasmine commented, "but he didn't sound happy about joining our team. I'll have to keep an eye on him. For now though, he's better company than Shawn's been."

* * *

The last few raindrops fell onto the island as the loudspeakers turned on. "Okay, now that the weather's cleared up," Chris announced, "Get your butts to the woods for today's beatdown, I mean, challenge!"

A cut to the woods showed the campers arriving at Chris's location.

"Welcome contestants," the host greeted. "Before we get started, let's bring back last night's exile, Sierra!" He pointed upward, causing the campers to face the sky.

Chef piloted a helicopter over them, and the camera panned down to show Sierra clutched in a mechanical claw.

The blogger waved to the other contestants. "Hi, guys! I'm back- whoa!" Chef released her from the claw, making her fall to the ground. When she landed in an awkward position, Chris walked over to her.

"How was it on Boney Island?" Chris asked, his tone showing amusement.

"It was… great!" Sierra popped back up on her feet excitedly, taking Chris aback. "Can I go back again tonight?"

The host stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, you actually enjoyed that?!"

She nodded. "Duh! Boney Island is a famous Total Drama location!"

The scene flashed to Sierra's exile the night before. She was shown standing on Boney Island's beach, gasping. "The beach where Beth found that cursed idol!" Taking out her phone, she snapped a picture. Next, she was shown standing in front of a cave. "The cave where they returned the idol!" She took another picture with her phone. Finally, she was shown standing near a familiar construction site. "The scaffolding for Chris's personal resort!" A third picture was taken.

Returning to the present, Sierra said, "It was like taking a tour of celebrity houses." She raised an eyebrow, lifting a hand to point at her competition. "Hey, why aren't Duncan and Shawn standing with their teams?" She inhaled sharply, theories running wildly through her head. "Did I miss a team swap?!"

Her team stared at her, still stunned by her admittance of enjoying her exile.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Sierra must be one of the only people in the world to like Boney Island. Who would like a place like that?" Sammy inquired, rather incredulous.

* * *

"Crazy revelations aside," Chris said, taking the attention away from Sierra. "It's challenge time! Chef didn't have time to cook Team Loser's breakfast this morning because he was too busy making these!" He gestured off to the side.

The camera panned to two giant plates with stacks of equally large pancakes drenched in syrup. Each plate was also rigged with a post that held the team logo and a loudspeaker.

"Pancakes!" Chris explained while one of the plates was shown against a golden background. "That's right, it's eating contest time. Each team member gets one minute to scarf up as much pancake-y goodness as they can. When a hero's eating time is up, they hear this." Their loudspeaker played the sound of a heavenly choir. "And the villains get this." The Vultures' loudspeaker emitted a vulture's screech. "And then you just have to run through a nausea-inducing obstacle course."

Beardo gulped. "Obstacle course?"

"It's a nod to the Mad Skills Obstacle Course from last season," Chris elaborated, glancing at the course in question. "The toughest parts, anyway."

A section of familiar red butt-shaped spheres were shown pumping up and down in a pit of mud. "First, you've got to get past the Bouncy Butts. They're a real pain," the host joked. Then a section of two rolling logs was shown. "Then it's onto the Wretched Rolling Pins." After that, the big, black boot from the beginning of last season's course was revealed. "And a swift kick from the Grape Crusher gets you back in line."

Topher couldn't help scoffing like he had done at the leeches the day before. "That won't be so hard."

Chris gave the aspiring host a challenging stare. "Really?" He held a finger up to his chin in mock thought. "I wasn't going to add this, but since Topher's not impressed…" Lifting up a walkie-talkie, he said into it, "Bring it in!"

Chef returned with the helicopter, this time carrying a large, wooden contraption.

"Say hello to my metal friend," Chris said, almost quoting a famous movie. Chef released the contraption, dropping it around a big metal machine. Nearby, the chubby intern with glasses flinched next to a console connected to the machine. "I call it, the Salad Spinner. The perfect end to a barf-tastic course."

Cody walked over, scratching his head. "How does it work?"

"Probably painfully," Chris answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. We didn't have time to test it."

Shawn cast a scathing look at Topher. "Nice going, man."

Topher spread out his arms defensively. "I thought the challenge could use some sprucing up. The rolling pins and the boot were underwhelming, but the Bouncy Butts was good."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I may not want to be a host exactly like Chris anymore, but that doesn't mean I no longer want to improve his ideas," Topher reasoned.

* * *

"One other thing," Chris added after Topher's confession, "Players have to make it through the course without, ahem, regurgitating to get back in line and stay in the game. But, if you puke, you're benched." The camera cut to a little bench underneath a tree several feet away from the course. "Leaving the other players on your team to eat up without your help. Once your pancake is toast, just complete the obstacle course one last time to win. Ready, set… scarf!" Bringing out his air horn, he signaled for the challenge to begin.

Sierra was first to go for her team. Since she hadn't had a proper meal on Boney Island, she was hungry and would take advantage of the opportunity to get something in her stomach.

The Vultures took a moment to decide who should go first. Alejandro rested his hand on Heather's shoulder, shocking the queen bee. "We need a team leader," he told her with a stern face, "and I think it should be you."

Both Topher and Gwen let out an indignant 'What?' at his suggestion. Topher wasn't sure what his alliance partner was thinking, while Gwen had thought they settled the team leader thing during the last challenge. Not to mention she was still pissed at Heather about her diary.

Heather shoved the charmer's hand off her shoulder. "Fine," she grouchily agreed, "You go first, but you better have a big appetite."

He smirked at her. "As you wish." He jogged over to join Sierra at the pancake station, starting on his team's plate. A few bites in, he noticed something moving underneath the pancakes. Narrowed eyes peered at him between pancakes, and then two little rats jumped onto his chest, clawing at him. "Ouch! Ow!" He struggled to get them off.

"Oh yeah," Chris said offhandedly, the scene shifting to him reclining in a lounge chair with a coconut cup in one hand and a pitcher of pink lemonade off to the side. "There might be some booby traps and feisty ingredients in those pain-cakes."

Sierra had the lead over Alejandro. While she was eating, she scooped something up that she noticed decorated the pancake she was eating. "Are those blueberries?" She wondered out loud, holding little blue orbs in her palm. Without waiting for an answer, she tossed them into her mouth, deciding food was food.

"I've never heard of fish eyes being called that, but sure," Chris commented. He frowned when a retching sound was heard.

Sierra was shown walking over to the bench. "And Sierra is benched. Who's next?" Chris requested while the blogger was shown struggling not to puke again.

Cody ran to the heroes' pancakes. "I'm on it!" His teammates started to cheer for him as he picked up where Sierra left off. Beside him, Alejandro managed to ditch the rats and continue eating.

While watching Alejandro, Gwen happened to look over at the Hamsters. Her gaze met Duncan's. Her boyfriend gave a small wave while his teammates were too busy watching Cody to notice. Gwen quickly turned away, doing her best not to look at him.

Along with the rats, Alejandro inexplicably managed to find a baseball bat, an actual baseball, and a bear trap somewhere in the pancakes. The rats gnawed on the ball while he ate. His chewing was interrupted by the sound of his team's signal that his eating time was up.

"Eating time is over for Alejandro. Now it's beating time," Chris narrated, eager to watch the first victim of the course.

Alejandro's team started chanting their support for him as he approached the Bouncy Butts. Taking a running jump, he curled up into a ball and landed on the first butt. His momentum allowed the butt to launch him into the air and swiftly soar over the rest of them.

"Very nice moves from Alejandro," Chris complimented, "and he continues to impress on the rolling pins!"

The charmer steadily made his way across the two pins, advancing to the final section quickly.

Heather cheered, "Yes!" She caught herself before she showed her teammate more praise.

Alejandro took his place at the Grape Crusher, and allowed it to kick him over to the Salad Spinner. He fell into the spinner with a yelp of pain, and the chubby intern started up the machine. The machine spun, and Alejandro struggled not to blow chunks. After a few moments, the machine ceased spinning and the exit hatch opened. He dropped out of the machine painfully.

Chris stared at the Salad Spinner with interest. "So that's how it works," he mused.

At the Salad Spinner, Alejandro's cheeks bulged as if he was about to vomit. His team gasped, seeing the expanded cheeks. For a moment, he attempted to keep his mouth shut so nothing got out. He swallowed his bile back, and stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"Tastes so nice, he ate it twice," Chris quipped at Alejandro's expense.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

His arms folded over his chest, Alejandro scowled at the camera. "Chris will pay for laughing at me," he vowed.

"I sincerely doubt it, Al!" Chris taunted over the loudspeakers. The charmer's scowl deepened at Chris's laughter.

* * *

Sugar's stomach growled ominously. Having heard the noise, Heather glanced at the pageant queen. "Gassy from Gruel, you're next."

"Whatever," Sugar snapped back, annoyed by the nickname. "I was going to volunteer anyway." She went over to the villains' pancakes, and began her turn.

Holding a chunk of pancake, Cody ate as much as he could. The pancakes started to shift, and a raccoon emerged from the stack. "What the?" Cody gaped. He flailed his arms as the raccoon launched itself at him.

"The villains may have the lead, but Cody's got the most game," Chris jeered from the side.

Cody fell to the ground, and attempted to shove the raccoon off of him. "Get off me!" Using both hands, he managed to fling the creature away. The raccoon landed next to the pile of traps Alejandro had set off in the villains' stack. Its presence frightened the rats, and its tail brushed the bear trap, triggering it by accident. It let out a screech of pain as the bear trap clamped onto its tail. Startled by the noise, the rats fled the scene while the raccoon ran off, trying to dislodge the trap along the way.

The angelic choir sound signaled for Cody to run the course.

"Run, dude!" Beardo encouraged his teammate.

Cody frowned as he ran towards the Bouncy Butts. "This is going to hurt a lot, isn't it?" Without waiting for an answer, he jumped onto the first. "Ow! I was right! Ow!" He yelped in pain as he traveled over the butts.

* * *

Sugar loudly complained, "These aren't even half as good as Chef usually makes 'em. He's holding out on us!" Regardless of her complaints, she kept eating.

"Less talking and more eating, Sugar," Shawn called out. The camera panned to Gwen and Heather beside him.

"Why should I do anything you say?" Gwen argued.

"You should listen to me because we're in an alliance, and alliance partners listen to each other." Heather shot back.

"Oh, like you listened to Beth and Lindsay that first season?" Gwen put her hands on her hips. "As for the alliance, consider it broken. I don't make alliances with people who steal my diary."

Heather gasped in shock. Immediately getting over it, she growled angrily at the goth girl.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"I thought, for once, I could be on the same side as Heather. Then she goes and steals my diary after we make an alliance? She's so full of it!" Gwen ranted, curling her lowered hands into fists.

* * *

Cody approached the Grape Crusher area, rubbing his backside. "I'm going to be feeling that tomorrow," he grumbled. The boot didn't even wait for him to stop. It kicked him into the Salad Spinner. The geek screamed as he spun around. When it stopped, he dizzily flopped out of the machine, moaning.

"Are you okay, Cody?" Sierra asked in concern from the bench.

While Sierra expressed her worry for Cody, Chris laughed. "Which team will finish their barf-tastic breakfast first? Find out after the break!" The show faded on Chris in his lounge chair for commercial.

* * *

When the show returned, Sugar was still eating.

"We're back! The Vultures are still in the lead, but for how long?" Chris asked rhetorically.

"One side, I'll go next." Duncan ran over to the heroes' pancakes, and began shoveling pieces in by the mouthful.

As he began his turn, the Vultures' post screeched.

Licking the syrup off her face, Sugar whooped, "Alright! Time to show these yahoos how to do the course!" She ran to the Bouncy Butts, and jumped onto the first with a yell of "Sugar Holla!"

"Who's going next once Sugar is done?" Shawn piped up among the Vultures.

Gwen sighed. "I'll do it, if it means Heather will shut up." She sent a glare over her shoulder at the queen bee.

"Gladly, and after you, Topher can go, then Shawn, and then it's my turn. If we still need someone to eat after I finish, Alejandro can take his turn again," Heather decided.

* * *

Finishing the rolling pins, Sugar declared, "My heels are not good for rolling things, just saying." She walked over to the Grape Crusher, pointing up at it. "Give me your best shot." The boot kicked her off the platform. She spun around in the machine, keeping her mouth closed despite the bulging of her cheeks. When it stopped, she stumbled out the side nearest to the intern's station. "That was one of the worst rides I ever had," she complained, holding her stomach. Her eyesight spotted a lever sticking out near the bottom of the Salad Spinner's control panel. "Hey, what's this doohickey do?" Grabbing the lever, she pulled it down, making the little blue screen above it turn red.

"The Vultures are clear to have another player go," Chris said in a brief cut back to his seat.

"Alright, bring it on." Gwen went to the pancakes, and began eating.

The camera panned to Duncan eating next to her. "This is easy," he said. Right after he spoke, a snap sounded. He pulled his head back from the pancakes to reveal a mouse trap had set off on his lips. He let out a muffled scream of pain.

"You were saying?" Chris teased.

The angel choir sound rang again, signaling Duncan's time was up. Prying the trap off his mouth, the punk ran for the course.

Gwen stuffed a piece of pancake into her mouth. Unfortunately for her, the piece she just ate revealed a couple of crabs hidden within the stack. They jumped at her, snapping their claws. She started running around to try and shake them off.

"There better not be some kind of zombie trap in there when it's my turn," Shawn stated, making Topher roll his eyes next to him.

* * *

A diagram of the eaten portions of pancake from each team were shown on the show's monitor. To measure their progress, their team logos were used with the eaten portions grayed out. Chris pointed at the Vultures' with a rod, then the Hamsters'. "The villains are two-thirds done, and the heroes aren't that far behind with half done, but they still need to up their appetite."

Duncan arrived at the Grape Crusher moments later. He turned back to point at the course he just completed. "Hah! Nothing a pro villain couldn't handle!" He grunted as the boot came down and kicked him in the chest.

"Duncan's at the Salad Spinner," Chris updated as the punk landed in the machine. It spun him around much rougher than it had with previous turns, and he fell out, face first. Too injured to even lift his head, Duncan gave a thumbs-up to signal he was good and didn't puke. "The heroes need another eater."

"Make way," Jasmine said, rushing up to the pancakes. Taking Chris's advice, she attempted to speed up her team's progress.

The Vultures' screech played, and with cheeks bulging, Gwen went through the course. She bounced along the butts, and faceplanted on the other side of them, causing her team to cringe with sympathy.

"Gwen, are you alright?" Duncan inquired to his girlfriend from the Salad Spinner area, just about to make his way back to the line.

Recovering, Gwen prepared to get up, but she suddenly got on her hands and knees, vomiting.

"And Gwen gives the Hurl of Shame new meaning," Chris declared, "hit the bench!"

Picking up a bucket along the way, Gwen went to join Sierra, who lowered her phone respectfully when she arrived.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

Without saying a word, she puked into her bucket.

* * *

"With Gwen out, the villains need another eater!" Chris reminded the Vultures.

"That's my cue," Topher remarked, heading to the Vultures' remaining pancakes. Gingerly, he began to eat.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Eating all these pancakes is going to be bad for my diet to achieve a host-worthy body. I'm going to have to reconsider my dinner plans for the spa hotel," the wannabe host thought out loud, raising a finger to his chin as he attempted to think of new arrangements.

* * *

"Come on, Topher! Don't be a wimp," Heather shouted at her teammate.

After a few shots of both Jasmine and Topher eating, the heroes' choir played. Just as Jasmine was about to move onto the course, she noticed a stick of dynamite hidden in the stack. Before she could do anything about it, the stick exploded.

"Aaaaah!" The explorer screamed as she flew through the air, overpassing the course until she landed in the Salad Spinner. While the machine whirled her around, she could be heard yelling, "Something feels wrong in here!" When it stopped, she stumbled out, falling onto the platform with her back. She moaned in pain.

"Topher makes it to the Spinner," Chris announced, making Jasmine look up at the device. The camera zoomed out to show Topher flying into the Spinner, screaming all the way.

The intern started up the machine again, and paused when he noticed a blinking red light on the console.

Inside the Spinner, Topher yelled, "This doesn't sound good!"

The machine continued to spin, beginning to smoke, and without stopping, Topher was forcefully ejected from it. The wannabe host found himself once again screaming. Over at the bench, Gwen and Sierra gasped as Topher crashed into them, tipping the bench backwards.

Chris laughed at the campers' misfortune.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Maybe next time, I should keep quiet about improving challenges," he thought out loud. He was curled up in a fetal position on the outhouse seat and his hair was unkempt.

* * *

Once again, the diagram with the team logos was shown. Now a fourth of the Vultures' logo was still colored while the Hamsters' logo still had a third.

"Looks like the villains are about to taste victory," Chris said, tapping the Vultures' logo with the rod. "And maybe some old shoes, we put them in their pancakes."

Sammy, Cody, and Beardo all stood together, looking at the diagram.

"What are we going to do?" Sammy asked her teammates. "I don't eat much. There's no way I can beat Shawn." She gestured with her hand, making the boys look over at the pancakes station, where Shawn arrived and began eating.

Beardo gasped, as if he was having a realization.

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

He smiled brightly as he made his confession. "This is my role on the team! A back-up Owen! With Owen out, it's up to me to take care of eating challenges. I can do this!"

* * *

Beardo ran past his teammates. "I'm finishing those pancakes!" He slid to a stop near the heroes' stack, and made the noise of a vacuum turning on before starting to shovel chunks of pancake into his mouth.

"Go, Beardo!" "Come on!" "You've got this, Beardo!"

"Kick his butt, Shawn!" "You screw this up, and you're gone!"

The diagrams were shown onscreen again, even more of the logos turning gray until they each had an equal sliver of color left.

"The heroes have stormed back, people," Chris declared. "It's neck and neck!"

Prying off a piece of pancake, Beardo inadvertently revealed a beehive within. "Ah, bees!" He shouted in surprise.

Shawn bit into a piece, made a gagging sound, and pulled an old shoe out of the pancake. Tossing it aside, he continued eating. A line of little red specks marched from the pancakes across the plate to Shawn's feet, and began climbing up his legs. Feeling it, he looked down and started flailing. "Augh! Fire ants!"

"Don't you dare lose!" Heather screamed at Shawn.

"They won't sting you unless you make them angry," Sammy helpfully reminded Beardo.

Even though Shawn was the first of the two to start eating, Beardo was the first to finish. Scooping up the last piece of pancake, he stuffed it into his mouth. His face was now covered in bee stings as the angel choir sounded.

"Beardo finishes his pancakes first!" The host announced.

"Knew I could do it," Beardo said with cheeks full of bee stings.

"The obstacle course, Beardo! Hurry!" Jasmine hollered.

Fighting the pain, Beardo attempted to run over to the course.

Sugar rolled her eyes. "There goes our night in the spa hotel again."

"Come on, amigo. Andale!" Alejandro pleaded to Shawn.

Groaning, Shawn reached out for the last piece of his team's pancakes. "Almost… got it." Grabbing it, he quickly chewed and swallowed, making the vulture screech ring out from the post.

Chris stood next to the monitor, both team logo diagrams entirely grayed out. "And Shawn finished the villains' pancakes. The race to finish is on!"

Running across the rolling pins, Beardo moaned, "Stomach full… can't go any faster…"

"Almost there!" "Just a little more, Beardo!" "You can do it!"

"Some pancakes aren't going to stop me," Shawn vowed. Beardo looked back as he finished the pins, and was only able to look back for a second before the conspiracy nut crashed into him.

"Get up, Shawn!" "Now's your chance!"

Both boys groaned in agony. Valiantly, they got back on their feet. Sharing a glance, they ran for the Grape Crusher area.

Beardo panted, glancing down at Shawn. "Whatever happens…"

Shawn nodded in agreement. "You too."

They reached Grape Crusher, and when they saw the giant boot swing down towards them, they clutched onto each other, shrieking in terror.

After they were kicked over to the Salad Spinner, both landed inside. It was really down to the wire as the machine began to spin for the final time in the challenge. A split screen showed Beardo on top and Shawn on the bottom, each keeping their mouths closed with bulging cheeks.

The intern was shown powering down the station, and the contraption came to a stop, the hatch on the side opening to let the riders out.

The Hamsters, then the Vultures, and then Gwen and Sierra at the bench were all shown watching the hatch with wide eyes.

A white hand was shown in the hatch first, and then a scruffy head covered with a beanie hat.

The Vultures began to cheer.

Shawn hauled himself out of the hatch, and dropped pathetically onto the platform. Moments later, Beardo landed on top of him, accidentally knocking the wind out of the conspiracy nut.

"And the Vultures win!" Chris declared.

Shawn's teammates began to celebrate after Shawn threw them a smile. To the surprise and repulsion of Topher, Sugar lifted him up in a tight hug. Alejandro and Heather embraced happily, only to realize a second later what they were doing, and quickly separated.

Beardo's teammates came over to him, and helped him get off of Shawn. Beardo's cheeks were still bulging.

"What's the matter, Beardo? Do you need a bucket?" Sammy inquired. She flinched when he took his hand away from his mouth.

To her luck, Beardo didn't need to puke. But, he did need to belch.

The human soundboard let out a loud one. Several contestants plugged their noses or fanned their faces. Elsewhere in the woods, a moose and a bear were playing chess when the burp disrupted their game, making the moose throw the board. The burp was so loud that it made a flock of birds flee the trees.

Beardo chuckled out of embarrassment. "Scuse me."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Heh, maybe instead of Beardo, people should be calling me 'Belcho'?" He joked, still covered in stings.

* * *

As the teams gathered at the Salad Spinner, Sierra couldn't help but notice something off.

"Where'd Cody go?" She asked, looking around. Her question made the others glance around for the geek hero too. Their eyebrows all shot up when they heard him reply from far off.

Hidden behind Chris's lounge chair, Cody answered, "I'm not coming over there until all the ants are gone."

Startled by Cody's close proximity to him, Chris stared at him, wondering how he got over there without him realizing it.

* * *

At the bonfire ceremony, the campers talked while they waited for Chris to arrive with the marshmallows.

"So, nobody's going to vote me off, right?" Sammy spoke up, sitting in the back row with Jasmine. "I didn't even get to take a turn, so it'd be really unfair to vote me because of that."

Jasmine patted her on the back. "You're good. Don't worry."

Duncan strode over to the Peanut Gallery, and spoke to Gwen. "So, I might be going home because I'm the new guy on the team, and nobody really trusts a bad boy, so how about a kiss for good luck or whatever?"

Uncomfortably, Gwen struggled to find a response. "U-um, about that…"

Sitting next to her, Sugar shooed him away. "Beat it, grass hair! You're not on this team anymore, so get away from the winners' seats."

Duncan frowned at the pageant queen. "All I want is-"

"It's ceremony time," Chris said, arriving with the plate of marshmallows in hand. "Duncan, if you would take a seat with the rest of the heroes?"

The punk gave Sugar a sharp look as he walked back to the stump seats. She waved her hand smugly as he went away.

"Alrighty then, which of our winners will be taking exile tonight?"

Topher hopped out of his seat. "I'll take it."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I've spent all afternoon wondering how to fix the damage the pancakes did to my diet, and the best I could come up with was taking exile and skip dinner," the wannabe host admitted. His concerned frown turned into a smirk. "At least this way, I can look for the invincibility statue. With that thing, I'll definitely have a big impact on the game."

* * *

"Perfect," Chris agreed, smiling. "Now, on with voting for someone to take the Flush of Shame."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Sorry, no hard feelings okay?" She apologized, glancing up at the camera as she marked a photo.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

Cody glared at the photo, marking it. "You deserve this."

* * *

(Confessional- Beardo)

"Best choice I've got," he said, selecting a photo.

* * *

After the votes were cast, the bonfire was shown again. Chris had already handed out marshmallows to Cody, Jasmine, Sammy, and Sierra. Only Beardo and Duncan were left without a sugary treat.

Chris said, "We're down to the final two contestants. Who will get the final marshmallow?" A close up of Beardo was shown. "Will it be Beardo, the big belcher, or Duncan, the hero trying to be a bad boy?" The camera panned away from Beardo to Duncan, who raised half a unibrow at Chris in irritation. "The last marshmallow goes to…"

Beardo stared at Chris, terrified.

Duncan scowled at Chris.

A close up of the marshmallow briefly appeared.

Beardo raised his hands to his face.

Duncan curled his hands into fists.

Chris took the marshmallow from the plate, and called a name.

"Duncan!" The host flicked the marshmallow at the punk.

Beardo made a noise that sounded like a well-known video game death chime. "I'm sorry, guys," he said afterwards, standing up. "I tried so hard to figure out my place here that I risked everything to find it. I'm no back-up Owen. All I'm good for is an extra vote in someone's corner."

Sammy frowned at his words. She rose from her seat, and went over to hug him. "Oh, Beardo… you're so much more than just another vote. And you're not a back-up Owen either. You're you. A friend…"

Seeing where Sammy was going with this, Jasmine came over to join them. "A teammate."

Cody joined the group. "A cool roommate too. Who else do I know that can mimic noises in his sleep?"

"You're part of the Total Drama family," Sierra added, walking over with her phone in hand. "And you have to be extra special to be part of that." She motioned to them. "Come on, guys! Group selfie!"

Duncan remained seated on his stump, looking away with a not-indifferent expression as the group got in position while Sierra held her phone at arm's length.

The resulting picture was shown onscreen. Sierra was down at the bottom, one arm snaked around Cody's shoulder to the right. Above the pair, Beardo was in between Jasmine and Sammy. The cheerleader was to the right of the picture, hugging Beardo's stomach and laughing as his long beard tickled her head. Jasmine was to the picture's left, her chin resting on Beardo's shoulder.

* * *

A flash transition showed the team down at the Flush of Shame.

"Bye, Beardo!" Sierra waved to the hairy boy in the giant toilet.

Duncan shot him a finger pistol. "Take care, man."

Beardo returned the finger pistol with his own. "Catch you guys on the outsi-i-ide!" His final words were drowned out as Chris pressed the remote to flush him. There was a loud sputtering noise. "Uh, guys? I think I'm stuck."

Chris glanced at Chef beside him. "I thought you were going to fix that water pressure problem."

Chef rolled his eyes at his co-worker, and picked up a rather large plunger. While he went to take care of the issue, Chris began his outro. Beardo's remaining teammates all watched in disgust and horror as sloshing sounds of Chef's attempts persisted through the host's final words.

"The villains finally win again! But, can they do it again again?" Growing annoyed with the noise, Chris shot Chef a look. "Can you stop that for just one second?"

Standing at the edge of the toilet bowl, Chef let go of the plunger with an annoyed expression on his face.

Satisfied, Chris finished, "Find out next time on Total Drama All-Stars!"

While the camera was on a far shot of the island, the Flush of Shame started up again, and Beardo could be heard screaming as he finally was flushed.

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

"Waagh!" Beardo yelped as he was spewed out of a pipe.

Sputtering, he surfaced in the water and swam to the edge. He shook his afro to dry it.

"That was all sorts of crazy," he said to himself and looked around. He noticed that he was in some kind of sewer. "Where am I?" Taking a quick sniff of the air, he raised an eyebrow. "I smell food." His eyes spotted a ladder, and his sight followed the ladder up to what looked like a manhole cover.

The camera cut to the other side of the manhole cover. It shifted as Beardo slid it aside, and climbed up to daylight. Beardo took on an expression of confusion. "What the?"

The camera then zoomed out to show Beardo standing in a Chinese marketplace.

Scratching his head, he wondered, "How'd I get here?"

"Oh my gosh!" A female voice cried out.

Beardo turned towards the source of the cry, only to be tackled by a blur of brown, green, and pink.

The blur hugged Beardo for a quick second before pulling away. "You're Beardo! It's so incredulous to finally meet you! I'm Beth!" Beth greeted, sticking her hand out.

Bewildered by Beth's greeting, Beardo hesitantly shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. Say, aren't you one of the older contestants from Total Drama?"

She nodded. "That's me. Friendship bracelet?" She held up a brightly colored bracelet.

"Um, sure."

As Beardo took the bracelet, Beth looked over her shoulder. "Come on, Dave! Get over here! Don't you want to say hi to an old teammate?"

Dave wearily made his way onto the screen, joining the two. "Did you really have to drag me along to pick him up?"

"Yeah," Beth told him. "Noah needed two people to pick up each person that was eliminated. He said it would make searching and getting back go faster." She gave Dave a warm smile as she teasingly poked his arm. "Besides, you could use some cheering up, and I'm an expert at that."

Beardo looked at Beth confusingly. "What is going on, exactly?"

"It's a long story, and one I'd rather not go over again," Dave answered. "I'd have rather stayed back home. I needed to get several shots just to come here so I didn't get infected by any foreign bacteria."

Beth glanced at Beardo. "It's not that long, actually. But before we get into that, want to look around for a little bit? It's not every day you wind up at a Chinese market."

Beardo shrugged. "I'm down."

As Beth and Beardo walked off, starting to chat like they were already fast friends, Dave sighed behind them. "We're going to be here all day." Regardless of his feelings on the matter, he followed them.

They were his ride back to Canada.

* * *

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Sadly, this is the end for Beardo's game. I really enjoy Beardo's character, and it really saddened me when he was eliminated first over Leonard in canon. I feel like Beardo struggled to fit in, and his ROTI story plus these last four episodes were all about that. He wasn't trying to stir things up, and everybody did respect him for that. When he joined an All-Star cast, he felt insecure about what that meant and tried to find a reason why he would be considered an All-Star other than he made the merge. In the end, it's a Be Yourself story, and he's an All-Star by being who he is. His game-over sound effect was supposed to be Pac-Man's death sound effect. I meant for him to do that one after he got hit by leeches, but I forgot so it went at his elimination instead.**

 **Wtih one additional player around, I decided not to have players tag out in the last round because then two people a team would've been robbed the chance to run the course instead of one person a team. Sugar's villainous move of the episode was messing with the Salad Spinner's controls, and once again, Topher spoke up about the challenge's lack of pizzazz.**

 **As for the Bonus Clip, I deliberately had Beardo end up in China because that's where World Tour's eating challenge was held, and the challenge of this episode was an eating challenge. As for who picked Beardo up, I adore Beardo and Beth's friendship in Fangren's Total Shuffled, and Beth had a similar story of trying to fit in during the canon show. Dave was selected to be her partner because he was Beardo's teammate and the one he talked to the most after Sky.**

 **This is my final upload of Cast Swap for 2018. I may upload something else just for a little fun, but I'm going to hold off on more Cast Swap until after New Year's has passed. Thanks for making Cast Swap my most-read fic, and for making my holiday wish for a TVTropes page come true. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays; it's been a great year.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome! Happy holidays, and see you next year in 2019!**


	18. TDAS Episode 5

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you very much!

 **Sdyeet:** Yeah, I hated that bit too. Interesting predictions about who's next to take the flush, let's see if you're right.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** Thanks, I really wanted to do Beardo justice.

 **AnonBrowser:** Which is why he had to be the first eliminated. If he got to the pancake challenge, he would've destroyed it easily. Fair point about why he was eliminated in canon, and I still stand by my opinion that it should've been Leonard instead of him. I knew he was shy, but I hadn't considered social anxiety. That could be it too. He did make a good effort, and everyone loves him for it.

 **StarHeart Specials:** Very true. We'll see about your hopes and wonders.

 **Phenomenal Excelsior:** Yeah, I was disappointed too. And yeah, at least he's getting recognition here. That was one of the reasons why I had him be picked up in China, yes. Topher just wants to keep things interesting so it'll still be around by the time he becomes a TV host. Sugar is one devious girl, I'll give her that, and disgusting too. Trust me, if Sierra was part of the original cast, Boney Island would be a nightmare for her too, but she's too starstruck here to realize how dangerous it is. And Cody's definitely not happy, nope. You rock for being for an awesome reviewer.

 **That British Guy:** They really wouldn't. I nearly gagged, thinking about it. And if you can't think of something to say, a 'good chapter' or 'love this! keep it up!' will be alright.

 **Magic Detective:** I think I feel more bad for the people getting flushed down that toilet.

 **SilentSinger948:** Always happy to hear another Beardo supporter. Thank you, I tried to flesh out character interactions.

 **Joel Connell:** Thank you! I'm really proud of that twist. We'll see about Duncan and Gwen, and even though Cody hates him, he wouldn't throw the challenge just to eliminate Duncan. Who knows who will make the finale? It's happened in shows like Total Drama in real life, so why not in a cartoon?

 **LovelyLuly:** Really? Because I double-checked, and I don't appear to have made that sort of error. Thanks for looking out for errors, though.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** Yeah, Beardo just wasn't meant to win this one. Also, I do aim to give Duncan a better ending. Whether he wins or loses, it won't end with him getting arrested.

 **Star Saber21:** Glad it made you laugh.

 **Overlord Exor:** When you think about it, the Blue Harvest Moon is creepy, and thankfully we don't have that in our world. We'll have to see if the moon does anything to Sugar. Then again, she eats so much animal, that she may as well be one herself. Haha!

With the reviews answered, it's time for a really, really weird and dangerous night challenge!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a season one DVD and some t-shirts.

Episode 5- Moon Madness

"Last time on Total Drama All-Stars," Chris began to narrate as footage from the previous episode began to roll. "After swapping teams, Shawn and Duncan were stuck living with the enemy." Shawn was shown being woken up by Chef's intrusion into the loser cabin to serve breakfast, and Duncan was seen taken off-guard by Sammy greeting him at the breakfast table in the spa hotel. "While Shawn was pretty much ignored, Duncan got a warm reception from everyone but Cody." The geek was shown scowling at Duncan from the end of the table followed by his confessional expressing his disdain for his new teammate.

"At challenge time, giant pancakes were gobbled down, and in a few cases, thrown right back up." A clip of Alejandro eating pancakes while Cody rushed up to replace Sierra played, followed by Gwen puking onto the platform. "Thanks to a barf-tacular obstacle course! Way to re-swallow, bro." Alejandro could be seen swallowing his bile back down to avoid vomiting. "The villains finished first, and it was Beardo, who tried to be someone he wasn't, who got the night's awkward Flush of Shame." The human soundboard disappeared down the giant toilet, and then Chef was shown picking up his large plunger while Beardo's remaining teammates watched on in disgusted horror.

The footage came to an end, and flashed to Chris in the present. "Eleven players remain, and which one of them will take a circle-y swim in the big, porcelain bowl?" He gestured below him as the camera zoomed out to show the host standing on top of the Flush of Shame's tank. "Find out right now on total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

"Ew," Sammy could be heard griping as the show once again started at the loser cabin. Mysteriously, a pair of bright blue eyes were seen lurking underneath the cabin's porch. The camera zoomed in on the girls' side of the cabin, and cut inside. The good twin was sitting on her bunk across from Sierra, holding a bowl of gruel and a spoon. Hesitantly, she held up a spoonful of her meal. "I think this has gotten worse since we were last here."

Across the room, Sierra giggled as she set aside an empty bowl and spoon. "Silly Sammy, that's how you know you're getting an authentic Total Drama experience." Picking up her phone, she began to type on it.

Sammy looked up from her bowl, and gawked at her roommate. "H-how did you finish that already? I've barely taken two bites."

"Pretty easily, actually. I just thought about how cool it was to eat Chef's gruel than how nasty it tasted. That made it painless to swallow."

"That's one way to get through it, I guess," Sammy reluctantly agreed, glancing again at her bowl. "Not sure how that helps me, though."

Sierra shrugged without removing her sight from her device. "Eh, you'll figure it out." The blogger rose from her bed. "I'm going to go track down Jasmine. I still have to interview her for some of my blogs." Walking out into the evening, she thought out loud to herself as she continued clicking on her phone. "I wonder if I can ask her- whoa!" One of her feet appeared to catch on one of the steps, and she fell forward with a yelp.

Her phone flew from her possession. Sierra gasped as she watched it fly away from her, and inhaled sharply as her prized communication device snapped apart on impact with a pointy rock several feet away. She let out one of her recognizable shrieks, getting to her feet and hurrying over to pick up the object.

Both cabin doors burst open, revealing Cody and Sammy, respectively.

"Sierra?" Sammy asked.

"Are you okay?" Cody inquired, equally concerned as Sammy.

Sierra walked over to meet them at the bottom of the porch, and she held out her shattered phone, tears pooling in her eyes. "M-m-my phone! It's ruined!"

Cody peered at the device. "Really? How'd that happen?"

As Sierra began to explain what happened moments ago, a certain blue-eyed pageant queen peeked around the side of the cabin with a devious grin.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I saw that girl fawning over that stupid phone the past few days," Sugar explained. "I figured if I'm going to sabotage my teammates, I might as well sabotage the other team too. And it was so easy!"

 _The confession transitioned into a flashback with a ripple effect. Sierra had stepped out of the cabin, typing as she walked. Halfway down the porch steps, Sugar's chubby arm reached out between two of them and grasped Sierra's ankle. When Sierra fell off-screen, Sugar quickly withdrew her arm and crawled out from under the cabin. She smirked at her work, and quickly ducked behind the cabin with an alarmed look when the cabin doors flung open._

The flashback rippled back into Sugar's confessional. "I've got Gwen blaming Heather for her book, and now that purple-haired chick is going to go bonkers without her phone. I'm on a roll!" She lifted her arms in victory.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"So, I'm still stuck on this lame hero team. I'm not a hero," the punk stated. "I really got to find a way to reclaim my badness before this hero business ruins my reputation forever."

* * *

At the edge of the campgrounds, near the communal washrooms, Duncan approached a tree. Shaking a can of spray paint, he began spraying a tree. After a moment of painting, he nearly jumped when Jasmine dropped behind him from above, but continued his work despite the interruption.

"What're you doing?" The explorer asked, glaring at him.

"What's it look like?" Duncan retorted, motioning to his art with his free hand. "I'm reclaiming my rep."

"Well, stop it! Unlike you, I care about our environment." She jabbed a finger at him.

"Gladly," Duncan quipped, lowering his spray can. "I'm done, anyway. How's that for bad?" He grinned, impressed with himself.

Jasmine glared at the art, and then raised a brow in confusion. "Is that supposed to be a bunny?"

The punk's brow shot up, and he looked back at his vandalism. If looked at a certain way, the skull it was supposed to be could potentially look like a bunny. "What? No! It's a skull!"

Jasmine glanced at Duncan with a still-raised brow. "Well, it looks more like a bunny to me. Not very bad, if that's what you were going for." She walked away, unimpressed with Duncan's attempt.

He switched glances between Jasmine's departing form and his artwork before finally throwing a frustrated glare at the sky, growling as he threw the spray paint to the ground.

* * *

A flash cut to the spa hotel, where a whistling sound was heard. The camera cut inside to Alejandro and Heather sitting side by side at the dining room table, both of them eating steaks with a side of orange juice. Neither of them appeared to be whistling as they ate.

The camera zoomed in on Alejandro, happily enjoying his steaks until a rather annoyed Heather stormed over to his seat.

"Do you have to whistle through your nose while you eat, Windy?" Heather questioned, slamming one hand on the table while holding her fork with the other. She appeared ready to stab someone if the whistling noise continued.

The whistling ceased, as it apparently had come from Alejandro. The charmer scowled at her interrupting his meal. His appetite gone, he stuck his fork in his steaks and pushed the plate aside with a sigh. "Typical Heather," he muttered, leaving his seat and the dining room altogether.

Heather gasped sharply, her eyes going wide in a close-up.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"Typical Heather?" She repeated. "He calls that a comeback? It's like he's not even trying… It's like he's lost interest in me." Her voice went soft at that suggestion before her face and her tone grew hard. "No one has _ever_ lost interest in me!" She emphasized the statement with a point of her finger at herself.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"To get the upper hand," Alejandro explained with a smile, "I need to throw Heather off her game, and so far, so bueno. Muy bueno."

* * *

A brief shot of the sun setting over the lake was shown before cutting to the woods. Jasmine walked past a tall tree, and after she passed, Shawn poked his head out from behind the tree on a wide branch higher up. He watched the explorer go on her way, and then sighed once he was sure she was out of hearing range.

"We've been friends for the past year, and just like that, she dismisses everything about my life philosophy," the conspiracy nut murmured to himself. He sat down on the branch, and swung his legs contemplatively. "Maybe I should've volunteered for exile instead of Topher. At least that way, I wouldn't have to dodge her around camp."

At Boney Island, Topher moaned, "I'm starving! In hindsight, going without dinner to get my diet back on track was a terrible idea." The wannabe host rubbed his stomach as he wandered through the woods. "And that idol search is turning up a bust too. Where's an idol supposed to be around here?" Using his hands, he parted a bush in two and came face-to-face with a bear.

The bear roared, raising its forepaws, and the sight was enough to make Topher scream. Before the bear could attack, the same claw that had dropped Sierra the previous day descended upon Topher, grabbing him by the head.

"Agh! Hey!" Topher complained as he was lifted up and out of the bear's range. It roared in complaint. "Careful! My face is my best feature!" Topher hollered at the helicopter pilot, who happened to be Chef. The cook grinned, and started flying them back to Camp Wawanakwa. "This is very uncomfortable, I'll tell you." The wannabe host raised his hands to the claw to try and adjust it. While he did, he happened to look down below him, and the sight made him smile. "Hey, great aerial view. Now I get why Chris loves his jetpack so much."

Back at camp, Chris announced over the loudspeakers, "Attention, campers! Gather around the starting line for a big announcement!"

The campers found the indicated starting line easily, and divided into their respective teams. They all looked up when Chef flew overhead with Topher, and the cook dropped him by his teammates.

"Ugh, I'd say that would hurt in the morning, but it's actually starting to hurt now," Topher grumbled.

Alejandro took a knee next to his alliance partner. "You okay, amigo?"

"Fine as I can be on this show," Topher replied, getting up and dusting the dirt off his shirt and pants.

"Which means awful," Gwen put in, rolling her eyes.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"My time this season has been worse than awful so far," the goth said, "and I haven't even told Duncan that my feelings have changed. Somehow, I just know that's going to make everything worse, so I've been putting it off."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

As he made his confession, Topher attempted to comb his hair back into proper shape, the coif having been disheveled in his unceremonious drop from the helicopter claw. "Yeah, when I'm host, Chef's not going to be able to handle me so roughly anymore. He'll have to treat me better once I'm his boss." He paused as a thought came to him. "Or maybe I should find a new Chef Hatchet, and have the old one retire." He checked his hair in a mirror, and smiled. "Either way, everything is going to be better when I'm in charge."

* * *

"Good news, guys," Chris said as the camera panned past the starting line to show Chris walking up to the cast, wearing a watch and a safari hat. "It's time for an extremely dangerous nighttime challenge."

"How is this 'good news'?" Gwen inquired, making air quotes around the last two words.

"Entertainment value, hellooo," Chris retorted in a childish tone before putting on a big smile. "This is going to be ratings gold." He started to explain the challenge while Chef rolled the monitor onto the scene, and on the monitor was a display of the island with a green 'X' marked at the campgrounds. "In a nod to season four's buried treasure fiasco, your challenge is to race to the far end of the island. The first team to get all of their team members across the finish line wins, and the losing team will be taking the big flush." A red 'X' appeared past the Thousand Foot High Cliff, and silhouettes of all the contestants showed up next to it in their respective team groupings.

"Sounds easy enough," Duncan said, though he sounded skeptical.

Chris smiled cheekily as Chef took the monitor away. "It does, doesn't it? But tonight's full moon is an extremely rare blue harvest moon, and let's just say it has an _unusual_ effect on the animals." The host chuckled at something he found funny, what about, the contestants had no idea.

The Vultures shared an uncertain, uneasy glance as Chris addressed them. "Villainous Vultures, you won the last challenge, so you get this map with the fastest route across the island." He held up a map with a marked path. "Heroic Chumpsters, you get to wear nifty bacon hats and sausage tails, which should add to the fun when you come face to fang with the island's friendly creatures, and by friendly, I mean hungry." It was the Hamsters' turn to become uneasy when Chef walked over and plopped hats made of bacon on their heads and wrapped belts made of sausages around their waists.

As Chris continued to chuckle, Jasmine took the moment to lean over to Sammy. "If the Vultures have a map with the quickest route," she whispered in the cheerleader's ear.

"Then we should follow them," Sammy quickly caught on. "Great idea!" Her smile went away quickly, and she grasped Jasmine's shoulder to pull her down so she could whisper back.

Jasmine listened to the hushed words, and she gasped. "What?" Her eyes drifted over to Sierra, who was still distraught over her broken phone.

Sugar smirked wickedly, watching Sierra's despair. Her attention shifted when she saw Heather walk back over from obtaining the map from Chris.

"This should be a piece of cake," the queen bee stated as she studied it.

"On your marks," Chris counted down, lifting an arm to signal.

Eyeing Heather, Alejandro dramatically sighed and corrected her. "Piece of pie."

"Get set," the host raised his arm even further, ignoring the pair.

Glaring, Heather tore her gaze away from the map. "Listen, you..." Alejandro smirked at her, amused with her irritation.

Heather didn't get to say anything further because Chris dropped his arm, and instead pulled out his air horn, pressing down on the horn's button.

Fortunately for the Vultures, Heather didn't let herself get too distracted arguing with Alejandro, and the team set off at the same moment that the Hamsters had gone.

* * *

A few minutes later, both teams were in the woods.

"Sorry to hear about your phone, Sierra. I know you like to use that thing a lot," Jasmine apologized as the Hamsters trailed shortly behind the Vultures, intending on sticking with Jasmine's idea.

"Thanks. It's just really upsetting, you know? I had like five hundred pictures saved on it," Sierra said, trying to focus on the challenge and avoid getting voted off.

Cody offered up his hand. "Hey, I'm a geek, remember? I'm sure once we get back to camp, I can find a way to fix it."

Sierra smiled gratefully to him. "Aw! Thanks so much, Cody."

"So we're just going to follow the other team to the finish line?" Duncan checked, running in front with Jasmine and Sammy. "What're we supposed to do once we get there? We can't let them stay ahead of us the whole time, or we'll lose."

"I'm sure Jasmine has a plan," Sammy told him in an assuring tone. She glanced at the team ahead of them. "Though, I'm still not sure what that blue harvest moon is that Chris was talking about."

Jasmine gazed up at the sky for a moment, and skid to a halt. "I think we're about to find out. Look up there, mates!" She pointed up.

The whole Hamsters team stopped running to stare at the moon. The cameras pointed at the moon, displaying how it went from its usual grayish-yellow color to a glowing light blue.

"Ooh, that looks sorta pretty," Sierra commented off-screen.

"The moon turning blue? I thought that only happened in cartoons," Cody said.

A blue ring formed around the moon's outline, and expanded outward. Elsewhere in the woods, a bear had a squirrel pinned against a tree. The timid little rodent whimpered as the bear prepared to punch it, but then the ring passed over them. Both animals froze for a moment, and then it appeared they did a 180 in nature. The squirrel began to growl, and the bear took its paw away, frightened as the now furious squirrel jumped at it. The pair fell out of frame, and biting sounds were heard as the bear's fur appeared in the screen's corner.

A bird that eerily resembled Topher with feathers the same color as his light brown hair and a coif of feathers on top of its head flew angrily at something in an extreme close-up. The chubby intern with glasses screamed, closing the door to the spa hotel with the intention to keep the bird out. The door wasn't much help since the bird flew right through it, leaving behind a jagged hole five times its size. Sounds of stuff falling over inside the hotel rang out.

In another part of the woods, a fluffle of rabbits bared their teeth. One rabbit, presumably the leader, gave off a roar bigger than a creature its size would be thought capable of performing.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"In all of my preparation for the zombie apocalypse, I've never come across something called a blue harvest moon," the conspiracy nut reported. Tapping his chin, he thought out loud. "Either the blue harvest moon doesn't affect zombies, or nobody has reported on the effects yet." He smiled to himself. "Hey! Maybe I could be at the front of a zombie research breakthrough, here."

* * *

The villains stood warily as a crocodile that was confronting them moments ago suddenly began to thump its tail with the smile and energy of a happy dog. Alejandro stood in front of his team, eyeing the reptile skeptically. Behind him, Heather clutched their map, Gwen and Shawn braced themselves for attack, and Topher cowered behind Sugar.

"Uh, since when do crocodiles act like dogs?" Topher queried to his teammates.

Alejandro walked past the crocodile, observing it critically. "This moon is like no other," he said, "it must be causing the animals to become their opposite."

Heather hid her face behind the map, pulling the map away moments later to reveal a wide-eyed and cheery queen bee. "Wow, Alejandro! You are so smart," Heather praised with a blissful tone.

The combination of words, tone, and attitude from her made the season three villain stare at her in horror. " _Excuse me_?" He asked worriedly. The Heather he knew would never sincerely compliment him like that.

Ignoring the shock expressed all over Alejandro's face, Heather dropped the map in favor of crouching down to pull the inoffensive crocodile up into a hug.

"Who's a boochey boochey boo?" She cooed to the creature, not realizing she was strangling it by accident.

Several of her teammates' jaws simultaneously dropped at the affection they witnessed her showing. She was never this affectionate with anyone, much less an animal. As she continued to hug the crocodile, a shudder ran through Alejandro's body.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"I've never seen Heather act so sweet and kind," he confessed before clutching his arms in fright, "and it is _terrifying_!"

* * *

A trio of newly vicious bluebirds flew at the Heroic Hamsters.

Cody covered his head and bacon hat with his hands, ducking as they whizzed over him. "Please don't take my bacon," the geek pleaded to the birds.

Jasmine ran past him in the foreground. "Keep moving!"

"Right," he agreed. Uncovering his head, he checked behind him to see if the birds were coming back. Gasping, he ran to follow Jasmine. He screamed as the birds came flying past the screen, and an off-screen scuffle could be heard along with Cody's yelps of pain and chirping from the birds.

* * *

Several bunnies were shown growling, including one that roared as loud as a tiger.

Panning behind the bunnies, Gwen and Topher were startled by the roar and fled the scene while Sugar stayed behind, huffing as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"What's the big deal? It's just bunnies," the pageant queen scoffed at her teammates' cowardice.

Then the bunnies leapt at her, beginning to bite her. Before any graphic violence could appear, the shot changed to a view of the treetops along with the moon.

"Ow! Hey! You're going to pay for that!" Sugar vowed as her voice was heard all over the woods.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I haven't seen that much bite since my family at our last Boxing Day feast," Sugar said, then glanced at the window near the top of the outhouse. "But with a lot less turkey."

* * *

Carefully, Sammy backed away something she was looking down at out of frame. "Uh, nice ducky?" She squeaked. The camera panned down to a mean-looking duck quacking at her, ready to attack.

Another bird dove at Duncan, who ducked. "Whoa, that's it! I'm out." He ditched the rest of his team.

Jasmine hurried over to where the punk had just been standing. "No! We have to stick together!" She leveled at flat look a moment later. "And he's gone."

Cody joined her, snorting in annoyance. "That's not surprising. When it comes to Duncan, the only thing he cares about is himself."

"Hey, you guys?" Sierra piped up, getting the attention of her two teammates. She walked past them with a bird perched on her bacon hat and pecking at it. "I think it's trying to use Morse code. Ow!"

Scowling, Jasmine plucked Sierra's hat off the blogger's head. "If we're going to stand a chance at getting to that finish line, we need to ditch these hats. Chris never said we had to keep them on the whole time." Taking off her own bacon hat, she threw the two hats to the ground. The birds that had been attacking the team went straight to them.

"That's the best idea I've heard all night," Sammy commented over where she was being intimidated by the duck. She took her bacon hat off, and held it out to the waterfowl. She yelped when it roughly tore the garment from her hand with its beak, and watched warily as it stalked off with its new acquisition. Once she was sure that she would be left alone, she glanced over to her team. "Hey, where'd Duncan go?"

Jasmine took her usual hat out from her vest, and put it on her head. "With any luck, the finish line."

"We're going to have to find that too, considering we lost track of the villains," Sierra pointed out, and the footage zoomed out to show the four Hamsters alone.

"They must've gotten chased off by the animals," Cody concluded with a sigh, slouching over. "Just great…"

* * *

Elsewhere, the Vultures attempted to flee the rabbits.

"Would you lose those rabbits already?" Topher demanded to Sugar, who ran back and forth in an attempt to lose the fluffy creatures.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Sugar retorted. "Geez, where's that other team? They're the ones with the bacon and the wieners."

As he ran, Alejandro peered over his shoulder. "Hurry up, Heather! You have the map."

Heather was still hugging the crocodile, but now it seemed to be reciprocating the affection. At last, she released the reptile and jumped to her feet. "Yay, running!" The crocodile waved goodbye to her as she rejoined her team. Pulling out the map, she checked for their current location. "Great job, guys! We're halfway there!"

"This is sufficiently weird," muttered Gwen as the goth jogged beside Shawn.

"I know. Why is she being affected by the moon, and not us?" Shawn asked.

"Maybe she's part wolf?" Gwen suggested. The pair laughed at her joke.

"Seriously though," Shawn said as he recollected himself moments later, "Werewolves are no laughing matter, same with zombies and vampires."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"I don't believe in werewolves and vampires as much as I do with zombies," the conspiracy nut admitted, "but given Ezekiel's pretty much a zombie, and Amy's got- whatever weird thing she has going on, they're all real possibilities."

* * *

The heroes minus Duncan hurried through the woods as much as they could. Jasmine led the pack while Sierra ran next to her, Cody behind her, and Sammy close behind Jasmine.

"Duncan had better be at the finish line, or he's so getting that flush," Cody grumbled.

Sammy raised an eyebrow at him. "What's up with you? Ever since Duncan joined the team, you've been grumpy. Are you jealous that he's dating Gwen, and not you?"

Cody blinked at her, taken aback. "What? No. I just think it's unfair that Duncan got put on our team because he did something nice for Gwen once while Gwen has been-"

In the middle of Cody's rant, he tripped on a rock and crashed into Sierra's back. The pair stumbled over a nearby steep hill, and slid down.

Jasmine skidded to a halt when she saw what happened to her teammates. "Mates!" Her unexpected stop caused Sammy to smack into her, and they too were sent sliding down the steep hill, except in a different direction than Cody and Sierra. The girls shrieked as they disappeared into the woods.

At the bottom of the hill, Cody groaned, rubbing his head with his hand. Looking next to him, he found Sierra slumped over on the ground. "Ah! Sierra, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the blogger assured her friend, getting up. "But, where's our team?"

Cody noticed as well that they were alone, and gasped sharply. "Oh no, we must've gotten separated when I tripped."

Noticing something else, Sierra tapped his shoulder. "Um, Cody? We might have a problem."

"What's that?" He asked, then proceeded to look in the same direction as her. He spotted a rabbit. "Oh no." Some more rabbits appeared from the bushes.

"Run!" Sierra exclaimed when one of them screeched. The two heroes fled with the rabbits closely on their trail.

Inside a room with monitors, Chris chuckled upon seeing some of his campers in danger. He then faced the camera. "Who will make it to the other side of the island? And who's about to become a serving of teen cuisine? Stay tuned to find out right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" Creepily, a faceless figure could be seen on a different monitor as Chris made his commercial break. On a cliff overlooking the woods, the duck that had hassled Sammy for her bacon hat could be seen eating said hat. Concluding on a shot of the island at night, the show faded to commercial.

* * *

When the show returned, Jasmine was up in a tree, scouting the area. The camera panned down to the tree's base, where Sammy stood.

"Can you see anything?" The cheerleader inquired.

"I can't see the others, if that's what you're asking." Jasmine peeked down below to her friend to answer before returning to her scouting. "But, I think I see where we're supposed to go. It doesn't look too far."

Sammy sighed. "I hope the others are okay. If I hadn't asked about Duncan, Cody might not have tripped."

Jasmine dropped down from the tree. "I'm sure they're fine. Come on, the finish line is this way." She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, and the pair began to jog.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Vultures had come to a rope bridge over a tall drop into the river that ran throughout the island.

"A rope bridge?" Gwen observed incredulously. "It's probably a trap. We should go around."

"That'll take three times as long," Topher complained at her suggestion.

Gwen gestured to the bridge. "Well, I'm not crossing that thing, and anyone with brains will follow me."

Shawn nodded, walking away from the bridge with the goth. "I'm with Gwen. It's easy to get overwhelmed by zombies on one of those."

"What if you get lost?" Alejandro questioned. "Every member of the team must cross over the finish line for us to win."

"Besides, if you don't come with us, we'll miss you so much," Heather added in a sickeningly sweet voice. She didn't see the shudder Alejandro tried and failed to suppress.

Topher called out, "I need that spa hotel! I haven't had anything to eat all day!"

Gwen and Shawn were already a considerable distance from the bridge. "See you on the other side," she retorted flippantly. "You know, if you make it."

"Good luck," Shawn shouted to those who stayed.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"Talk about gullible," Gwen stated, "everyone who's seen a movie knows that the rope bridge always breaks. At least Shawn had sense to do things my way."

* * *

Somewhere in the woods, two strings of sausage were thrown across the frame, and a whole gang of rabbits pursued them.

Cody sighed in relief when the footage cut to him and Sierra, free of both bacon hats and sausage belts. "Finally, we lost them."

"Never thought I'd see rabbits eating sausages, but the island's always been different like that," Sierra shrugged, giggling out of fondness for the camp.

* * *

Back at the bridge, Heather encouraged her team to cross it. "Come on, guys. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Except you," Alejandro muttered behind her back.

Heather seemed to hear that comment, but didn't reply to it. "Maybe someone brave should cross it first, and make sure it's safe?" She batted her eyes meaningfully at the arch villain.

Alejandro didn't take the bait, but Sugar did step up at Heather's idea of someone going first.

"Let me do it," Sugar said, waving a dismissive hand. "It's just a stupid bridge."

Topher rolled his eyes as Sugar approached the bridge. "Whatever, just make it quick? I want to sleep in a decent bed tonight."

Sugar's remaining teammates watched as the pageant queen walked across the bridge with the poise and grace of aforementioned pageants. She didn't go as fast as Topher would've liked, but the bridge didn't even rock as she crossed. "There," she said after reaching the other side. "Nothing to it." A chittering sound caught her ear, and she gazed to the side, spotting a beaver sitting on a stump nearby. "Hey, y'all? Are beavers usually nice or nasty?" She hollered an inquiry to her teammates back across the river.

Before she could get an answer, the beaver chomped down on one of her hands.

"Ouch! Consarn it, that's my pageant waving hand!" Sugar flailed, trying to dislodge the creature.

Once she managed to get it loose, it landed on the rope bridge's supports and gnawed through the lower rope holding the bridge up.

Sugar's teammates moaned in despair when the planks that made the bridge fell sideways. All that was left for them to cross was the other lower rope and the upper rope.

"Seriously?" Topher griped as the beaver returned to attacking Sugar.

"Hey, you're messing up my hair!" Sugar tried to pry the animal off her head as it clawed at her.

"Just keep it busy," Alejandro advised her before turning his attention to Heather and Topher. "Shall we?" He motioned to the bridge.

The bridge gave a groan as it tried to support all three of them. It still held though when they were more than halfway across.

Topher gulped nervously, going ahead of Heather and Alejandro. "I think I get why Gwen and Shawn didn't want to cross it now."

Heather inched further across, only for one of the bridge planks to snap off and leave her without a foothold. She screamed, beginning to fall off the rope. Acting quickly, Alejandro seized her wrist while she was still within reach, hauling her back up to safety.

The queen bee smiled at her rescuer, this time more sinister and more in-character for regular Heather. "I _knew_ you still cared," she boasted to Alejandro, who raised an eyebrow at her.

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

"Now who's typical?" Heather quipped, folding her arms confidently over her chest. "Sucker! As if the moon affected me, but as long as I keep him guessing, I'll always have the upper hand."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"How dare she trick me," the charmer protested, irritated at falling for such a trick. "I should've let her fall." He smacked the side of his head. "Estupido!"

* * *

Sugar was still trying to dislodge the beaver from her head when her teammates finally reached the other side.

"For corn's sake," the pageant queen complained after they arrived, "one of y'all mind helping get this varmint off a me?"

Topher took up the task, using the beaver's distracted state to pick it up behind the paws so that it couldn't bite or scratch him. Once the creature was away from Sugar, he carried it over to the bridge that was no longer useful.

"How about you try biting something that isn't one of our teammates?" The wannabe host suggested rhetorically, holding the beaver up to the remaining rope keeping the bridge connected to their side of the ravine. The beaver effortlessly gnawed through the rope, and the planks of the bridge fell back, slapping against the rock on the original side.

Alejandro quickly realized what Topher had done. "Now the other team can't use the bridge. Brilliant plan, Topher!"

"But if Shawn and Gwen can't make it around the pit, the bridge is no longer an _option_ , is it?" Heather pointed out, rather cross with Topher and his idea.

"She's right. Terrible plan, Topher," Alejandro corrected upon realizing she had a point.

"So what? We were ahead of the other team last I remember, and that bridge was a death trap anyway," Topher retorted, carelessly tossing the beaver into the ravine and walking forward to move on towards the finish line.

If Topher or his team had bothered to watch the beaver fall, they would've seen the beaver make a rude gesture with both of its forepaws that had to be blurred out.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I don't see what the big deal is," Topher said, shrugging his shoulders. "Even if Shawn and Gwen had to go around, we'd still be ahead of the other team, and Shawn could probably find the two of them a way across."

* * *

Jasmine and Sammy jogged through the woods, searching for their teammates while getting closer to the finish line.

"So, have you talked to Shawn recently?" Sammy spoke up, breaking the pair's silence that had been going on for a while. "I know he's on the other team, but I haven't seen you two talk in a couple days."

Jasmine scoffed at the question. "Why should I? He insists on believing that dumb fantasy apocalypse, and had the nerve to yell at me for pointing out what it was and needing to be more realistic."

"But, the three of us have been friends for a year. Are you really going to let our friendship break up over one little argument?"

The explorer gave her friend's question a pause, but before she could open her mouth to answer-

"Hey, guys! Looks like we found you," Sierra greeted as she and Cody ran up next to them, somehow having managed to shake off the bunnies. "Still no Duncan, huh?"

Cody rolled his eyes. "Big surprise. I hope he's having a horrible time," the geek muttered under his breath.

* * *

The footage cut to Duncan's legs being shown running, and the punk screamed. The camera panned up his body to show a bird had sunk its beak into his sausage belt. "This is so not how I want to die."

The sound of Gwen's scream caused the camera to switch over to the goth girl, who was being pursued by a pack of ferocious squirrels. "Get away from me, you little freaks!"

Seeing his girlfriend's trouble, Duncan figured out how to get rid of both their problems. He unhooked the sausage belt from his waist, the bird included, and started to swing it around. "Gwen, _head's up_!" He warned before throwing the belt.

Without taking her eyes off the chasing squirrels, Gwen ducked just in time to see the sausages sail over her head. The sight was effective, due to the unusually vicious rodents stopping in their tracks and spotting the meat. The bird recovered from the toss, chirping angrily at Duncan as best as it could with a mouthful of wieners. It flew away with the meat, and the squirrels started going after it instead of the contestants. Out of the frame, the squirrels evidently caught up based on the sounds of scuffling and roars from both parties.

Duncan and Gwen panted, checking to make sure they weren't being followed anymore. Duncan recovered first.

"So," he began to say casually, "has the villains' team gotten boring since I got swapped?"

The chase had put Gwen's feelings about Duncan out of her mind, but staring at him and getting into the conversation brought them back in. Her emotions of fear immediately were replaced by feelings of insecurity. "Um, yeah. I guess so. Seems like there's still a lot going on, though."

"Well, we're together now. We can finish the challenge, and hang out on the way. Come on." Duncan reached for Gwen's hand.

"Gwen, there you are!" Shawn called out. Gwen happened to jerk her hand away from Duncan's right as the conspiracy nut said her name. Duncan didn't notice this, having been distracted and annoyed by Shawn's interruption. The boy jogged over to her and Duncan. "I finally got rid of that crazy deer. Hopefully we won't see it again for the rest of the night." He pointed over his shoulder. "The finish line is this way. Let's go!"

Gwen jumped on Shawn's direction. "Yeah, definitely." Shawn led her away, leaving Duncan to grumble and catch up a moment later.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"When, exactly, am I supposed to tell him how I'm feeling?" Gwen asked the audience. "Even when we're not out in the woods at night with animals experiencing reversed natural order, there never seems to be a good time to talk with him."

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

Duncan crossed his arms over his chest. "Who does Shawn think he is? Just when I think I've got some time with my babe, he comes in and takes her attention away from me. Interrupting another guy's time with his girlfriend is just wrong."

* * *

Gwen and Shawn's teammates ran through an open field.

"Gwen! Shawn! Ugh, where are they?" Topher complained.

"Perhaps they're at the finish line already?" Alejandro suggested.

* * *

The Heroic Hamsters approached the unavailable bridge, and the cheerleader gasped.

"The bridge is out. Now what're we supposed to do?" Sammy wondered.

Jasmine took a look around at their surroundings, then smirked. "Leave crossing the pit to me." She pointed at herself with a confident thumb.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"When you need to get somewhere quick, sometimes that requires getting a little unconventional." The explorer grinned.

* * *

"I don't know about this," Sammy said hesitantly.

She, Sierra, and Cody hung onto a vine Jasmine had found. The latter stood on a branch with the vine in hand.

"Trust me. I've done this many times before. Hang on!" She leaped off the branch, and the team flew across the pit, screaming. "Drop!" Jasmine called when she was sure they were across, and the team let go of the vine.

They rolled safely away from the edge, and in the process, Cody somehow landed on top of Sierra.

"Uh," Cody searched for something to say when he realized he was on Sierra's chest.

She cut him off with a warm smile. "Don't worry. We're best friends. I'm not looking too deeply into this."

Jasmine hopped up to her feet, the first of her team to recover. "Come on! Hurry!" Sammy was up after her, and the pair resumed running, Cody and Sierra joining them soon after.

* * *

Chris stood waiting at the finish line, which was just a couple of wooden poles with a few unlit lights strung over the arch. Seeing the first to arrive, he lifted his arms in greeting.

"Welcome to the finish line, villains," he said, "looks like you're still missing two players."

The Villainous Vultures were no longer jogging. It was more like they were walking, huffing and puffing to catch their breath.

"Least we got here first," Sugar piped up as Heather stopped moving closer to the finish line. The queen bee had a scowl on her face.

"Alright, I've had it!" She snapped.

Alejandro, Sugar, and Topher all crossed the finish. The charmer looked back at her once he was over. "Whatever do you mean?"

Heather pointed at him. "You! I've had it with you and your stupid games!"

"Heather," Topher attempted to interject, seeing something past Heather.

"Shut up, Topher! I'm not crossing that finish line until I know why Smooth Talker over there keeps trying to mess with my head."

Alejandro's eyes went wide, as did Topher's. "Uh, Heather?" The charmer said carefully.

"You keep getting mad at me, switch to complimenting me later, then get mad at me again only to say something nice after that," Heather ranted, raising her arms in frustration. "Seriously, what kind of angle are you playing?"

"Heather, deer!" Alejandro shouted. Behind him, Sugar took on a devious buck-toothed smile.

Heather pointed at him once more. "I'm not your 'dear'! And calling me typical? _Nobody_ calls me typical!"

"Hey, that's a mighty cute deer right behind you," Sugar casually mentioned.

"What deer?" Heather interrogated, only to tense up when she heard growling behind her. Slowly, she turned around to find a deer uncharacteristically snarling at her. The season one villain gasped, her pupils shrinking with shock.

"Heather!" Alejandro cried out, concern heavy in his voice.

"Stay-stay back, I'm warning you," Heather stammered, trying to take a cautious step back. "I'm on top of the food chain." One of her feet caught on a small rock, and she tripped backward onto her butt. She raised an arm in defense.

The deer growled in a close-up, and opened its muzzle to attack her. Before it could, a pair of tanned hands wedged a stick in its mouth. The deer whimpered at said stick.

The footage pulled back to display Alejandro kneeling in front of the deer, fending it off.

"Wha-? You?" Heather tried to say.

He glanced over his shoulder. "You're lucky I love you."

"You... _love_ me?"

* * *

(Confessional- Heather)

Heather sat on the outhouse seat, stunned. "He said that he loved me. Sure, guys I've dated have said that before, but when he said it, that was the first time I actually _cared_."

* * *

Alejandro's improvised defense didn't last long. The stick snapped from the pressure of the deer's muzzle.

Duncan, Gwen, and Shawn ran through the woods, and they were soon joined by Duncan's team.

"Duncan, there you are!" Sammy exclaimed. "Now we're all back together."

"The finish line is just up ahead," Shawn told Gwen and his old team.

Something in the moon changed. The blue coloring disappeared the moment a yellow ring appeared and expanded outward in the same manner the first blue ring had done. The moon returned to its original color.

The deer, who had one leg pinning down a terrified Alejandro and Heather each, stopped growling instantaneously, and scampered away like the inoffensive animal it previously was.

"Come on, Al! The moon's over!" Topher encouraged.

Sugar gave him a look, and smacked him upside the head. "He already crossed it. It's Heather and the others that still need to cross over."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"That boy's been acting dumb since he got back from Boney Island. He must really need that spa hotel," Sugar commented. She started to scratch her head in confusion. "Now I can't figure out if Heather really was affected by that weird moon thingy, or just pretending."

* * *

Topher's shout made Alejandro jump to his feet. "Don't call me 'Al'!" he demanded while offering a hand to help Heather up. In that quick moment, Shawn, Gwen, and the Heroic Hamsters passed them, and the pair joined the cluster in the final sprint.

It was all for naught, as Heather ended up being the last one over the line.

"And the Heroes win!" Chris announced.

The heroes cheered, hugging each other and pumping fists in the air. The camera panned over to the villains, who all groaned at their narrow defeat.

* * *

The challenge faded out, and the elimination ceremony faded in. The Hamsters sat comfortably in the peanut gallery, with Cody and Sierra sitting up in the top row while Duncan, Sammy, and Jasmine sat in the bottom. They watched as the Vultures took their seats on the stumps in front of the fire.

Cody sighed wistfully. "Gwen really shouldn't be over there."

"Stop pining over my girlfriend, dork," Duncan snapped in the row below him without even looking in the geek's direction. "You're getting really lame." Seconds later, one of Cody's shoes clocked the back of Duncan's head. "Ow!" The punk lifted a hand to rub the afflicted area, glaring up at the shoe's source.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"I'm so going after that little twerp next time we lose," Duncan vowed. He looked up in thought. "Him getting voted off would kill Sierra too, so that would be a bonus benefit."

* * *

"Okay peeps," Chris began the ceremony. "Each of you is a loser in your own right, but the heroes won the challenge so they've earned themselves a night of luxurious luxury in the spa hotel."

With a determined frown, Cody stood up from his seat. "I volunteer for exile!"

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, I don't care."

Sierra stared at her friend, shocked. "What? No, Cody! It's too dangerous for you."

"I can take it, Sierra. I've been there before. I know what to expect," Cody assured her. He leaned in close to her. "I also have to make sure Duncan doesn't get the invincibility statue."

The familiar whir of Chris and Chef's helicopter ended their conversation. The mechanical claw grasped Cody by the head like it had done to Topher early on in the episode.

"Wait, _my shoe_!" Cody reached out desperately for his missing piece of clothing, but was lifted up before he could retrieve it.

"Don't worry, Cody, I'll take care of it for you!" Sierra shouted as he was taken away.

While Sierra's hysterics distracted the others, Heather glanced over to Alejandro, who she sat next to that night. "Hey, listen. I'm sorry about the volcano, and for not checking on you all year. I'm really glad you're okay, no burns or anything. Accept my apology?"

Alejandro smiled sincerely. "Consider it accepted."

"Okay people," Chris reclaimed everyone's attention. "Tonight, we flush our second Vulture." He picked up a plate bearing marshmallows for all but one villain. "The flushee is not going to be Alejandro, Shawn, Sugar, or Topher."

The four campers were tossed their marshmallows.

"Gwen, you and Shawn decided to split off from the team and possibly cost them the challenge. Heather, you were the last person to actually finish the challenge. The last marshmallow goes to…"

Gwen's eyes went wide. She dared not to take a breath.

Heather scowled at the host like she had the last time she was on the block.

Over in the peanut gallery, Duncan leaned forward anxiously, concerned for his girlfriend's place in the game.

Alejandro frowned, curling his hand around his marshmallow as he cast a glance at Heather.

"… Gwen!"

"What?" Heather shrieked.

Gwen sighed happily, accepting the marshmallow that was tossed to her. "Good riddance."

"You people have some nerve getting rid of me," Heather hollered at her now ex-team, standing in outrage. "I'm a better player than all of you. I played this game three times, and got to the end, twice!"

Alejandro stood with her. "Now, _mi amor_ , don't be too hard on them. How can you blame them for wanting to eliminate a threat such as yourself?"

Heather slapped the hand he was raising toward her away. "Save it. You probably had something to do with this, didn't you? You save me, and then try to eliminate me later. That's so-so typical of you!"

Alejandro considered her words, and then nodded smugly. "This is true. Touché. And now that I have avenged the shame you once caused me, we can start a relationship on a clean slate."

"Don't bet on it," Heather spat at him, storming off to the dock.

Heather's former team watched her go with Chris, and once she was out of hearing range, Gwen glanced at the marshmallow in her hand.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"Heather being gone will hopefully make things easier around here," she admitted, sighing. "But not much easier when I still have to tell Duncan that I need to break up with him."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

The blogger clutched Cody's shoe. "I promised him I'd take care of this until he gets back from exile." She hummed critically. "Maybe I can pretend this is my phone until then and Cody fixes my real phone." Tapping the bottom of the shoe as if she was pressing buttons, she booped and beeped with each touch. After doing it a few times, she held it up to her ear. "Hello? Is this Cody's other shoe? I'd like to speak to Cody please, to make sure he's okay."

* * *

Heather floated in the Flush of Shame, and Chris stood by with his remote.

"Let's do this," Heather said bitterly. Chris obliged, and pressed his remote. The queen bee let out a final scream as she disappeared down the drain.

Once the backsplash had passed, Chris lowered his umbrella.

"Wild night, right?" Chris inquired to the audience. "That's one particularly nasty Vulture gone. With two players gone per team, anything is possible. Who will be following Heather down the flush? Find out next time on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

Like Scarlett before her, Heather floated out of a pipe underwater, and she scrambled to the surface.

Gasping for air, she looked around. "Wha-where am I?" The scene zoomed out to answer her question. Heather was apparently in nighttime London, in the river underneath one of London's many bridges. The famous giant clock, Big Ben, was visible in the background. "London? Seriously!" Inexplicably, a loop of rope landed on her head. "Ow!"

"Stop complainin' and grab on!" A sassy voice that Heather was familiar with called from above. Glaring in the voice's direction, Heather nonetheless grabbed the rope and let herself be hauled out of the river. She was pulled up to the edge of the bridge.

"A little more warning would be nice," Heather remarked snappishly, getting onto solid ground.

"Oh oh, Heather, did you hear? Jalapeno's back in the game!" A more bubbly voice said as Heather got to her feet.

"Sure, you remember my name, but you can't remember his. You're as dumb as ever," Heather said, wringing out her hair.

A brown-skinned hand waved a finger in her face. "Watch the tone, girl. I can easily push you back down there."

When the hand pulled back, the camera showed the owner of the hand. Heather's rescuers were actually Leshawna and Lindsay. The former had her usual 'don't take any crap from you' expression on her face whenever she dealt with Heather, and the latter merely smiled, clasping her hands together.

"Sorry that Allypiano eliminated you," Lindsay apologized. "I can't imagine getting voted off by your boyfriend like that."

"He's not my boyfriend," Heather corrected, balancing on one foot as she tapped her heel shoe dry before switching to the other one. "Why are you two here, anyway?"

"For you."

The queen bee raised an eyebrow. "For me?"

Leshawna patted Lindsay on the head. "Girl gets a lot wrong, but she's actually right this time. We came to get you."

"But, why? I despise both of you, and I'm pretty sure you two hate me."

"Well, we've got to roll soon, so I'll give you the short version. Chris's plans for the season finale are crazy dangerous, and we're going to need all the help we can get to keep the damage to a minimum," Leshawna explained.

"Keep what damage low?"

Lindsay bounced on her heels eagerly. "Can we tell you later? I wanna get back to our new place. After Chris kicked us out of the Playa, we got a _totally_ new place to hang out. You're going to love it."

Growing irritated with the lack of answers, Heather demanded, "What are you two talking about?"

"Come on. We'll tell you on the flight back. Not gonna lie, the new hangout is _kicking_!" Leshawna assured her, wrapping an arm around Heather's shoulder and guiding her away from the bridge.

Lindsay stayed put for a moment, looking around in confusion. She shrugged at her fellow ex-campers. "Kicking what? I don't see anyone kicking anything."

* * *

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **This is why I chose to have the non-elimination early. Heather was originally slated to be eliminated in the leechball episode, but I realized that didn't Heather and Alejandro enough post-volcano interaction together before she would be eliminated. My goal with Heather was to give her a better sendoff than her canon elimination, where she was made dumb enough to leave the invincibility behind so Alejandro could steal it. It might've been dumb for her not to cross the finish line before voicing her frustration with Alejandro's mind games, but I think it's better to act that way over a conflict she's been having the past few episodes rather than being dumb with the statue debacle.**

 **Sugar did something sneaky again. Like the diary situation, stealing or breaking other people's stuff sounds like something Sugar would do. This time, Sierra was the victim. So far, Sierra was having fun with her phone, and she needed some drama. Rest assured, this is not the beginning of Sierra going canon levels of nutty. Originally, Sierra's phone was going to be broken during her exile to Boney Island, but I decided that her actually enjoying her exile was an interesting twist, and it left the phone open to being broken the same way Cameron's glasses were. Meanwhile, Duncan's attempt to prove he's still naughty backfired, Gwen still has to confess to Duncan, and Sammy attempted to address Jasmine and Shawn's feud. Oh, and because Scott has not yet debuted, the uncanny Scott-bird was swapped out with a Topher-bird.**

 **This episode's pickup in London was chosen because the challenge was a night one, like World Tour's Jack the Ripper challenge was also set at night in London. Leshawna and Lindsay were selected to pick up Heather due to their history with her. At one point, she was called a friend to each, and Noah used that as his reasoning for sending them off to collect her when nobody volunteered.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	19. TDAS Episode 6

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you as always.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** Fair point, maybe since I thought so much of the season was dumb, it got lumped in there.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Yeah, when Ella's not around for Sugar to hate, Sugar can actually be a complex character. Totally agree about the insult to Sierra's intelligence, which is why I'm trying to do right by her. Cannot answer about Duncan and Gwen, but yes, there is more to be done with Alejandro when his love interest is removed from the situation.

 **Acosta perez jose ramiro:** Thank you!

 **AnonBrowser:** Those are some of the reasons why I had Heather eliminated. At this point, I might as well say yes, Sugar is the season's main villain. The rest will not be discussed due to spoilers.

 **Phenomenal Excelsior:** Glad I improved Heather's elimination, and yeah, Sugar is getting really sneaky. That pretty much sums up plot progression. I don't know, do you sense a Coderra vibe?

 **Critica7:** Thank you for saying Cast Swap is one of your favorites, it makes my day. The moon does add a difficulty to the challenge that wouldn't have been there before, and that makes the entertainment more interesting. Yeah, Topher has grown from merely trying to get Chris's attention since the last season. No, I have not read that story, but thank you for the recommendation.

 **That British Guy:** Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the chapter.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** Me too.

 **SilentSinger948:** Agreed, and who knows? The invincibility statue might just be found today. Yeah, hopefully.

 **Star Saber21:** Eh, missed opportunity for them then.

I forgot to mention this last time, but I'd like to remind everyone that Cast Swap has a TVTropes page, and it's off to a great start, but it's always looking for improvements. Go check that out, and add anything if you can.

Alright, time to collect some mutant eggs, and find out where the mutants have gone.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one and some shirts.

Episode 6- A Scramble Between Good and Evil

"Last time on Total Drama All-Stars," Chris narrated as the episode began immediately with footage of the moon entering the Blue Harvest Moon phase. "The island was bathed in a rare Blue Harvest Moon that turns normally sweet creatures into pure evil." Example footage of the bear being attacked by the squirrel played, followed by other displays of animals acting out-of-character.

"Totally unsafe to be out after dark in that," Chris teased. The campers were then shown traveling through the woods while the blue moon was in effect. "So, I made it a night challenge. Heather pretended to be affected by the moon, and the Hamsters got split up." Heather could be seen skipping around cheerfully as she made her way through the challenge with her team, and the heroes were shown getting separated as a result of Cody tripping on a rock while running.

The next clip was of the elimination ceremony. "In the end, the Hamsters won the challenge, and Heather ended up eliminated as part of Alejandro's plan to start their relationship over." Heather's elimination was shown, as was her flush down the toilet. "You can do better than her, bro." The footage flash-transitioned to Chris in present time at the Dock of Shame. "Now what is Alejandro going to do with his love life out of the game? How long will Sierra last without her phone? Find out right here on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

Oddly, the episode started off in the spa hotel instead of the loser cabin. Sierra sat in one of the end chairs at the dining table with not a plate in front of her, but the shoe she had saved for Cody. Sighing, she stroked a finger along the footwear.

"Mate, you've got to eat something. We might have a challenge today," Jasmine insisted, sitting across the table from her in a zoomed-out shot of the room. Taking her own advice, she had a plate of eggs and toast with a side of milk.

Sierra shook her head, continuing to caress the shoe. "I can't. I'm worried about Cody being by himself on Boney Island with only one shoe, and I can't even update my blogs as a distraction since my phone broke."

"I'm sure Cody is fine," Sammy said with hesitation off to the side. Sierra looked up, seeing the cheerleader come up by her seat to take the one next to hers. "Nobody has come back from Boney Island badly injured. Cody is smart, so he probably found a way to keep himself safe." The butler brought to plates to the table, placing them in front of Sammy and Sierra. "Oh, thank you!" Taking a fork, Sammy began to eat, though she frowned in concern when Sierra ignored her meal in favor of playing with Cody's shoe.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"I feel bad. As much as I didn't like her taking pictures with it all the time, even I didn't want her phone to get busted. That'd just make me a jerk," Sammy reasoned. "I'd try and fix her phone myself, but I'm no tech whiz."

* * *

As Sierra toyed with the shoelaces, Jasmine glanced around the room. "Say, where's Duncan? Breakfast is ready, and he should've been here by now."

"I think I saw him walking around outside on my way down here," Sammy answered, rising from her seat. "I'll go get him."

* * *

Outside, Duncan paced back and forth. "Think, man, think," the punk muttered to himself. "How can I maintain my bad boy rep?" He looked off to the side, and noticed the jeep that Chris and Chef had recently been using to get around the island. "That's perfect! I'll drive Chef's truck into the lake." Hopping into the driver's seat, he tried to hotwire the vehicle, only for it to make a sputtering noise. "Huh, something must be wrong with the starter," he mused. Duncan climbed out of the jeep, and went around to the front hood. Popping it open, he reached inside and tinkered around with the engine until it sounded like the vehicle had turned on.

"Duncan, what are you doing?" The voice of Sammy inquired. Duncan nearly jumped at her question, banging his head on the raised hood. "Oops, sorry! I didn't mean to startle you."

Pulling himself out from under the hood, Duncan raised a hand to rub his sore head. "It's fine. I was just messing with Chef's truck after it wouldn't turn on. It's on now, though."

Sammy blinked at him. "Wait, so you _fixed_ Chef's truck?" She smiled sweetly at him. "That's so nice of you."

Realizing how the situation looked, Duncan quickly tried to correct her. "What? No, I was actually going to-!" He nearly jumped again when the hood slammed shut behind him. The punk and cheerleader both turned to face the source.

Chef had climbed into the driver's seat, grinning in delight. "Duncan, you fixed my truck. You're a _good_ guy." The two contestants stepped to the side right before Chef drove his vehicle away.

"Aw, come on," Duncan griped as his opportunity to cause trouble left him, causing Sammy to glance at him with a confused expression.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"I'm really losing my edge, here. I need to do something bad that can't be mistaken for something nice, and fast." Duncan frowned, trying to come up with other ideas within the confessional outhouse's privacy. "Maybe Gwen could help. She knows me pretty well."

* * *

Later on that morning, Alejandro leaned against the porch railing of the loser cabin. As he watched the scenery, a green apple was thrust into his sight.

"Apple?" Topher offered. He had another apple in his other hand, it already missing a bite.

"Where did you get this?" Alejandro took the apple, not biting into it.

Topher shrugged. "I was really hungry last night, so I smuggled out a couple when we swapped cabins." He saw his alliance partner begin eating his apple, and continued to eat his own. "So, what's the plan now that both of our initial targets are gone?"

Chewing thoughtfully, Alejandro swallowed before speaking. "I think it would be prudent to go after our teammates with connections to the other team next, meaning Gwen and Shawn."

The wannabe host considered that for a moment. "That sounds right. Shawn was a hero before the switch, and Gwen's boyfriend is currently one of them. If they reach the merge, they could team up and make our own time at that point harder."

"Exactly my thinking," Alejandro agreed. "And since Shawn cost me our victory at the third challenge, I propose we go after him first."

"He was a major threat last season," Topher added, "and Gwen hasn't been much of one since season two. Yeah, I'd say Shawn has to go next."

Unbeknownst to both of them, Shawn had been up on the roof above them. He frowned at the information he heard. Not wanting to give himself away, he remained still and quiet.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

He huffed, his arms crossed over his chest. "Pfft, to think I was getting along fine with those guys. They're not getting rid of _me_ if I have anything to do about it."

* * *

Inside the loser cabin, on the girls' side, Gwen was rummaging through the drawers. Sugar sat on one of the lower bunks, touching up her mascara with a brush and a hand mirror. The latter looked up from her task, and cocked an eyebrow at the former.

"What're you doing?" Sugar wondered.

"Looking for my diary," Gwen answered sharply, slamming a drawer shut. "She could've at least told me where she hid it before she left."

Putting on a kind smile, Sugar offered, "Maybe I could help. Her kind and mine are pretty alike, so maybe I could figure out where she put it. What's it look like?"

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I already know what it looks like," Sugar explained, "but I can't let her _know_ that I know that. She'd figure out it was me all along."

* * *

A seagull with a six-pack ring stuck around its neck attempted to nest in one of the loudspeakers, but soon found out it was a bad idea when it was rudely woken up by the loudspeakers turning on.

"Get your butts to the docks, campers!" Chris ordered. "It's challenge time!"

A flash transitioned to Chris standing before the two teams on the Dock of Shame.

"Welcome, all," Chris greeted. "Today's challenge involves a trip to the Fun Zone." Chuckling, he blew a noisemaker. His enthusiasm spread to Sierra, who earned weird looks from her teammates.

"What's the angle?" Sugar regarded the host skeptically. "Is the whole place set on fire?"

"Nope," Chris shook his head.

"Is it a pit full of intestines?" That question came from Duncan.

"Would that be fun? You've had it kinda rough lately, so I figured- okay, the lawyers figured that you deserved a treat," Chris responded, correcting himself mid-thought. "But, if you'd rather do something else…"

The Vultures had smiled when the lawyers were mentioned, but when they saw Chris considering a second option, which was likely to be even more dangerous than his original plan, they glared at him, shouting, "No!"

Chris walked to the edge of the dock. "Fun Zone, it is," he declared. As if on cue, the Boat of Losers arrived with a groggy Cody on board. "Ooh, here's our ride."

"I'm back from exile," the geek reported. He had been about to disembark from the boat, but Chris extended his arm out and shoved him back on.

"All aboard!"

* * *

"The Fun Zone is on Boney Island?" Duncan clarified incredulously.

"Yep, it works as a surprise better that way," Chris said over a shot of Boney Island's infamous giant skull cavern.

Another cut later had Chris leading the two teams through Boney Island's woods. Cody still appeared tired, but he now had both of his shoes back.

"Ugh, I forgot how much of a dump this island was," Gwen grumbled.

Chris smiled at the campers. "Come on now, maybe someone will finally find the invincibility statue."

"I searched the island all night while avoiding the animal attacks, and found nothing," Cody protested, jabbing a finger at the host. " _Please_ say that you lied, and that the statue has been back at camp the whole time."

"The statue has been on Boney Island the whole time, but it's hidden in the Fun Zone, and whoever finds it gets to keep it," Chris said.

The campers began to cheer.

A flash transition showed everyone standing in front of a stone building surrounded by a wall of tall, upright logs. To make it look festive, balloons were tethered to either side of the metal gate, and a wooden deck chair sat off to the side with a flat-screen TV and a deck umbrella standing tall over the chair.

Chris spread his arms wide in introduction. "Welcome to the outside of the fabulous Fun Zone!" The camera panned across the reactions of Sugar, Shawn, Gwen, and Sierra. Sugar and Sierra had excited smiles, but Shawn and Gwen had nervous frowns. "Patent pending." Taking out a remote, he pressed the button on it, opening the metal gate. "Alright, let's move it, people! Keep a steady pace!"

A quick flash showed the cast inside the entrance/exit. To one side of the exit was a giant, red bowl with the Villainous Vultures' team logo, and a yellow one with the Heroic Hamsters' team logo was on the other. The moment the campers stepped inside, they could hear the screeches and hoots of the various occupants of the Fun Zone.

Chris gave a brief, cheeky wave before the gate slammed shut, causing the campers to whirl around in shock. A large monitor that hung over the doorway turned on, showing the host lounging in the deck chair.

"You are now in the Fun Zone, aka, the most dangerous place you've ever been," the host informed the contestants. "Your challenge is a homage to season three's condor egg hunt. The twist is you'll be putting eggs in a basket, and the eggs found in the Fun Zone belong to all the terrifying mutants from season four, who will try to smash your bodies and eat you."

Shawn went wide-eyed at the last bit, as did several of his fellow players. "What is fun about that?"

Chris hemmed and hawed, "Um, it's fun to _watch_?"

"All we have to do is collect the eggs?" Alejandro steered the conversation back on track.

"You'll be fine. They're just wild mutated beasts trying to protect their unborn babies. How bad can it get?" Chris changed the picture on the monitor from himself to an image of the Vultures' bowl with mutant eggs in it. "The first team with six eggs in their basket wins."

Duncan raised half his unibrow. "What if an egg hatches?"

"As long as you keep whatever hatches in your basket, it counts. And, as a special bonus, whoever collects the most eggs for the winning team gets a special reward. So, excited?" Chris concluded his explanation of the challenge rules.

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

The blogger squealed, clapping her hands together. "I am totally excited. I love eggs, and babies. I've got great maternal instincts. If anything hatches, I'll gladly be their new _mommy_."

* * *

The red bowl received a close-up. "The red basket belongs to the villains, and the gold one is for Duncan and the rest of the do-gooders." The punk growled at the tease. "I'd wish you all good luck, but it's bad for ratings, so I hope some of you get really hurt." Raising his air horn, Chris signaled for the challenge to start. "Begin!"

As the teams split apart, Sierra immediately grasped Cody's arm. "We should look for eggs together."

"Good idea," Cody agreed, looking into the mutated forest. "Definitely don't want to be looking around here alone."

Alejandro stopped Topher before he could get too far. "You go with Sugar, and convince her to vote Shawn in the case we lose. You know her better than I."

"Do I have to?" Topher griped. "She's so… ugh, and you're great at persuading people."

"It has to be you. The two of you have history, and she reminds me too much of Owen for my liking," Alejandro said.

Topher groaned. "Fine, but you owe me one."

* * *

A flash cut showed a bush rustling, followed by Shawn poking his head out. "Better be careful. I'd climb to higher ground, but who knows what lurks in the trees? Probably some kind of flying, brain-munching squirrel or something."

A pale hand tapped him on the shoulder. The conspiracy nut jumped out of the bush, flailing.

"Zombie!"

"Hey," Gwen calmed him down, "it's just me."

Shawn slowed his breathing, turning around to face her. "Don't do that! For all I knew, you could've been a brain muncher trying to grab me so you could feast on my mind."

The loner girl rolled her eyes. "Yeah, crazy aside, want to partner up for the challenge? One of us can run interference while the other one gets the eggs."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's do that," Shawn consented.

* * *

Jasmine and Sammy walked through the forest, chatting as they made their hunt. "It's just," Jasmine was saying, "he's always bringing zombies up in every conversation, and then he's got that apocalypse training thing, and those movies and games he plays. It's all just _too much_."

Sammy shuddered. "I'm not really a fan of all that either. I always cover my eyes during the gory parts. I dunno." The cheerleader shrugged. "Maybe if we both tell Shawn to dial all that stuff back, he'd listen?"

"Maybe," Jasmine considered. "I just want him to live more in the moment, instead of thinking all that stuff is real and let that decide how he lives. You know?" She glanced down at her friend.

Her friend nodded in agreement. "Yeah." Sammy looked forward, and gasped. "Hide!" She grabbed Jasmine by the arm, and pulled her behind a large bush nearby. They hid out of sight just in time for the enormous crab from last season to waddle past.

Once the creature was far enough away, Jasmine and Sammy poked their heads up. The explorer turned towards her friend. "Look at you, saving me this time around."

"I guess I did," Sammy giggled into a hand. "Come on. Maybe that crab has an egg we could borrow."

* * *

Sugar and Topher stood underneath a ledge, where a flying goat's nest sat on said ledge with a light blue egg inside it.

"You're not going to get it," Topher told the pageant queen, who was tossing a small stone up and down in her palm.

She pointed at him. "I am too. I once got a loonie in a vending machine from twenty-feet." Sugar chucked the rock at the nest, where it bounced off the egg, and the egg tilted right out of the nest into her hands. "Hah!" Cradling the egg with one hand, Sugar poked Topher in the chest. "That's for doubting my awesome skills!"

The pair hurried back to the baskets, and Sugar put the egg in their team's red one, cuing a triumphant horn blow. The sound was succeeded by an announcement from Chris. "First egg goes to the Villainous Vultures!" Elsewhere in the forest, Gwen and Shawn cheered. "You better get your butts in gear, Hamsters!" Cody and Sierra exchanged a look at the host's suggestion.

Sugar and Topher made to go out and find more eggs, but Topher, apparently thinking of something, stopped and turned to address the monitor. "Hang on, what's to stop the other team from taking eggs from our basket?"

"Integrity?" Chris shrugged.

Sugar walked back, and scowled at Chris. "Integrity? This is a _pageant_! There ain't no integrity!"

"I didn't make it a rule, so I guess they can," Chris replied.

Sugar shoved Topher closer to their team's basket. "You stay and watch whatever eggs the others bring back. I'm going hunting for more."

While annoyed with the shove, Topher called after her, "Don't forget to think about voting Shawn out!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Jasmine and Sammy didn't have luck with the crab, so they kept searching. Peeking from behind a tree, Jasmine pointed at something for Sammy to see.

"Look, it's Larry," Jasmine said. "And he's got an egg." Chris's mutant plant pet was in the ground, with a tentacle wrapped protectively around a large, green bulging egg.

Sammy raised a confused eyebrow. "Wait, so Larry's actually a _girl_?"

"Guess so. Here's the plan, I'm going to steal the flower and Larry will chase me. Once we're away, you take the egg and get it to the basket. Alright?"

Sammy frowned as Jasmine climbed up the tree they were hiding behind. "Okay, but be careful!"

Within minutes, Jasmine swung over Larry's open maw, yanking the flower from last season's final three challenge. "Up for a chase?" Clearing Larry's range, Jasmine dropped from the vine she swung in on and sprinted away. Larry snapped their jaws shut, and effortlessly rose out of the ground to give chase.

Sammy went to the egg, and struggled to pull it free from where it was rooted into the ground. "Yikes, this thing might even be bigger than I am."

Larry might've sensed their egg being ripped out because they roared loudly. Figuring now would be the time to lose the mutant plant, Jasmine threw the flower up onto a flying moose with three eyes. The moose blinked at the flower entering its vision, unaware it had landed on its nose until Larry snaked a root limb around the flying mutant and pulled it out of frame.

Jasmine tipped her hat to her opponent. "Thanks a bunch, mate!"

* * *

At a bog-looking area, Duncan lifted up a rock to check for potential nests underneath. "Come on, there's got to be one stupid egg around here."

In his search, he didn't notice the bubbling in the murky water getting nearer and nearer to him. A purple tentacle reached out of the water, and dragged him in by the ankle. Moments later, he was thrown out, hitting a tree with his back. The impact made a white egg wobble out of a knothole in the tree.

Seconds after he fell to the ground, the egg landed in an awkwardly stretched out hand. "Yes, and ow!" Duncan cheered momentarily before the pain of the throw set in.

* * *

"Hurry, get in the basket!" Jasmine directed as she and Sammy returned to the baskets, where Topher stood guard over the Vultures' collected egg.

The egg the girls retrieved from Larry began to thrash in Sammy's arms as they neared. Before Sammy could hoist the egg into the golden bowl, it began to kick more wildly.

"Uh oh," Sammy whimpered, having an idea of what was coming.

The egg exploded in a mess of green goop, covering the cheerleader in the stuff. She and Jasmine groaned as half a dozen little mutant flytraps tottered away from the basket. Topher watched them waddle away until his eyes went wide in horror at one of them that appeared to have an uncanny resemblance to Chris.

The host and Chef, who had arrived at some point, both watched a close-up of the Chris-lookalike flytrap. Seeing it, Chris darted his gaze away, whistling innocently.

Back inside the Fun Zone, Duncan arrived with the egg that had fallen into his palm, and he set it in the heroes' basket. The horn blared a second time.

"And the score is one all," Chris declared on the monitor, using his megaphone to make sure everyone heard the message.

Jasmine and Sammy cheered, sharing a high-five.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Duncan boasted, giving a thumb-up to them.

Jasmine shifted her attention to him. "Since you're here now, mind watching the basket? It's just that…" Unable to properly explain without badmouthing anybody, she merely indicated Topher standing several feet away with a cocky expression.

"Hm, good point," Duncan noted, accepting the task.

"Thanks," Sammy said, bidding him farewell as she and Jasmine jogged away to resume the challenge.

Once the girls were gone, Duncan sauntered over to the Vultures' basket. "So, how's Gwen doing?" He asked Topher. He then gave the wannabe host a curious look. "Uh, whatcha got there?"

Topher had one hand holding a bunched up part of his shirt that seemed to be- squirming? He shrugged casually with his other hand. "What are you talking about?"

Still curious, Duncan smacked Topher's hand that was holding his shirt, forcing his former teammate to let go with a yelp. The Chris-lookalike flytrap fell to the ground, and waddled away at speed. As it fled, Duncan cast a glance at Topher that demanded explanation.

"I was just going to sell it on Fred's List," Topher stated, shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

A flash transition turned the focus to Shawn and Gwen, who were hiding behind a large boulder to avoid being seen by one of the crocodiles with tentacles that Shawn's half of the cast dealt with the previous season.

"Figures Alejandro and Topher would work together. They're both full of themselves," Gwen muttered.

"We'll have to be careful for the challenges leading up to the merge, and make sure Sugar is on our side. As long as we have her, we'll have the majority," said Shawn.

"I'd rather _avoid_ needing the majority, and the only way to do that is to win the challenges."

"I'm not exactly comfortable losing, either." Shawn peeked around the boulder. "Coast is clear. Come on." He ran from their sheltered space, and Gwen followed closely.

* * *

Sierra and Cody returned to the baskets, with the blogger carrying a white egg that was beginning to crack. She put it in the heroes' basket, allowing the horn to blare just as the egg hatched completely.

"That's two eggs for the heroes," Chris updated.

A pair of conjoined rats popped out of the egg, both snarling. Duncan and Cody, for once not sharing a moment of animosity, both took a step back in terror. The snarling didn't faze Sierra, who instead chose to coo at the new hatchling.

"Aw, it thinks I'm its' mommy," Sierra gushed, scooping up the conjoined creature. "It's adorable."

Cody winced. "A really _weird_ definition of adorable."

"Yeah, maybe you should stay," Duncan suggested awkwardly, "while I go find more eggs."

"And I'll go too, so I don't have to deal with- that," Cody added, pointing at the rats Sierra was cradling.

Sierra looked hurt at Cody. "But, aren't you going to stay and be their daddy?"

"Nah, their 'daddy' has to go to work. See ya later," Cody dashed off after Duncan.

The blogger gazed sadly at her friend's exit. "Did I say something wrong?" She asked the conjoined rats. The one that hung upside down merely replied by vomiting.

The pause icon appeared over the image, making the puking action freeze.

A cut showed Chris had stopped the footage, and the host said, "It's _hard-boiled_ down to two eggs for the heroes, and one for the villains. But, the challenge is far from _over_ _easy_. Who will win?" He pulled out a sheet of paper that he and Chef read with awkward smiles. "Your _quiche_ is as good as mine?" Chris's tone was full of confusion as he read the last sentence, causing Chef to chuckle beside him. Throwing the paper away, Chris continued, "Stay tuned to Total Drama All-Stars!"

A far shot of Boney Island was shown, and Chris could be heard saying, "Yeah, I'm going to fire whoever wrote that." Then the show faded to black for commercial.

* * *

When the show returned, Gwen and Shawn were walking through the forest, and the long-eared rabbit that the Mutant Maggots had dressed up for season four's fashion challenge could be seen flying around, still wearing the costume in the background. In the foreground was the three-eyed teleporting frog.

"Yeah," Gwen drawled as she glanced around, "so glad I wasn't on _your_ season."

Shawn shrugged. "Meh, if anything, the mutated effects made for good research towards the zombie apocalypse as one of the potential causes." Something grabbed him by the leg, pulling him forward. "Whoa!"

One of the giant, blind gophers from the mine last season emerged from the ground, holding Shawn's leg with one of its paws. Experiencing her first real encounter with a mutant, Gwen screamed in terror with Shawn. Though, Shawn's terror didn't last as long as hers.

"Seriously? You again?" Shawn complained once he recognized the enemy, taking on an annoyed expression. As he was lifted up by his foot, he extended his arms, allowing his armpits to breathe. "Remember this?" He quipped.

The mutant gopher quickly discovered Shawn's scent, which stunk as horribly as ever, and squealed in recoil. It dropped Shawn, and hastily dug back into the ground. It was so concerned with getting away from Shawn's stench that it didn't even realize it had shoveled a dark blue egg out behind itself.

Once Gwen noticed it, she fumbled to catch it before it broke.

"Wow," Gwen said, somewhat stunned. "I don't know if this is the gopher's egg, or something else's, but I'm not complaining." She smiled down at Shawn, who was laying on the ground. "Nice job scaring it away."

Groaning, Shawn returned to his feet, dusting himself off. "That was just one of the many reasons I don't regularly bathe. Come on, let's get that to the basket before it hatches." The pair ran off back to the entrance.

* * *

Once he and Duncan had left the basket, Cody went on his own. He recognized that it was a dumb idea to try getting eggs from big mutants by himself, so he stuck to hunting for small mutants with nests. That was how he ended up swiping an egg from a mutated maggot.

"Ew, ew, ew," Cody griped quietly while nudging the sleeping maggot parent curled around its egg to release said egg and remain in the nest. The egg itself was covered in maggot vomit. Once the egg was away from its parent, the geek allowed himself to cheer. "Yes!" He hurried away with his prize, hoping not to see the maggot wake up and realize its egg was missing.

* * *

A flash cut to the baskets showed Alejandro and Sugar having returned with eggs in tow. Sugar placed the team's second egg inside the Vultures' basket, and Alejandro one-upped her by bringing two.

"And the villains are up four to two!" Chris updated after the horn fanfare.

Sugar scowled at Alejandro. "What are you? Some kind of show-off?"

Alejandro boasted a smile. "Whatever do you mean? I merely went out to retrieve an egg, and happened to pick up a second one on my way back."

The pageant queen got in his face. "I know your angle, mister. Making it look like you're the most valuable person here so the other dummies don't vote you off. Well guess what, you're not the most valuable. I am, and I'm gonna prove it." Stomping away, she went to go find more eggs.

Topher watched her go, and then pointed at her while glancing at Alejandro. "Are you sure we shouldn't just get rid of her _now_?"

Alejandro raised a placating hand. "Be patient. Her time will come later on."

The wannabe host sighed. "Fine. I'm gonna go find some eggs. You stay and watch the ones we've got."

Alejandro shrugged. "Fair enough. I deserve a break after collecting two at once." He watched Topher leave, and then leaned against the team's basket casually.

Panning over to the Hamsters' basket, Sierra sat inside it with the team's eggs along with the hatched conjoined rats. "I'll call you, Blog," she said to one of the two, "and I'll call you, Post. That way you're Blog Post! Hehe, get it?"

* * *

Topher poked his head up from behind a rock, hearing Sugar's shout of "Would you buzz off? Or baa off, or whatever you do?"

Sugar was higher up on a ledge where another flying goat's nest was, another blue egg tucked under one arm and a stick in her other hand. The stick was on fire from the fire breath of the goat she was fending against.

"Fall. Do it. It'd make great TV," Topher muttered quietly.

He soon got his wish when the flying goat rammed at Sugar, throwing her off the ledge.

On the ground, Sugar got on her hands and knees, and was about to look for the egg she had tried retrieving, only to find an interesting development.

"Well, lookie here…" She said.

The egg had fallen a few feet from her, and had most definitely broken open, but the contents inside were not that of an egg yolk. Somehow, inside the egg shell was the invincibility statue. Sugar reached out, and picked up the statue to look it over.

Topher's jaw dropped. "You've gotta be _kidding_ me!"

Sugar stashed the statue in a pocket of her jeans, and started climbing back up to the goat's nest, unaware someone had observed her discovery.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I don't know _how_ that statue got in that egg, but I don't care. It's mine now!" Sugar flaunted the statue at the outhouse camera. "And I didn't even need to stash it somewhere and fetch it later after the challenge was done. Thank you, jeans with deep pockets!" The pageant queen patted her jeans proudly.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher had his face in his hands. "Sugar. Of all the people that could've found the statue, it had to be _Sugar_?" Taking his hands away from his face and setting them on his knees, he stared at the camera seriously. "I have to warn Al, and convince him to go after Sugar sooner instead of later, otherwise we'll never get her out."

* * *

Sugar was back at the nest, the goat that had been protecting it gone, and she picked up the last egg remaining. "Another goat egg? Where's the challenge in that?" She heard Topher remark faintly from below.

Topher was now out in the open, and Sugar hopped down with the egg to join him. "Chris never said we could only use one egg from each animal, so I figured since I knew where the goats' nests were, I'd just get all of my eggs from there." She stared sharply at her teammate, putting her free hand on her hip. "What are you doing here, anyhow? You've been following me like a dog all day. I get it, already. I'll vote for Shawn or Gwen at the next bonfire. Now beat it!"

Topher raised his hands in a defensive motion. "Okay, okay. I was just saying that getting all your eggs from the same place is kinda boring. I mean, there are probably lots of nests around here, and you decide to just use one nest. Talk about lame."

She rolled her eyes at him. "How'd you ever get to the final four when you're so stupid?" Turning away, she started the trek back to the basket.

"At least I didn't _quit_ because of a stupid rock," Topher shot back. He continued to follow her. "And my game was better than yours!"

* * *

"I've never seen a chicken that huge, or with that many eyes," Sammy remarked as she walked with Jasmine. "That's probably going to haunt my nightmares for a while, but at least we lost it."

Jasmine nodded. "And with how long of a chase we gave it, we can get back to its nest first." She grinned, looking ahead. "There it is!" The explorer and her friend jogged over to a large nest with a lot of purple eggs.

"Wow! If we brought all these back, we'd win by a mile!" Sammy exclaimed, peering into the nest.

* * *

Back at the baskets, Sierra was now standing outside of the basket, stretching her legs as she cradled the conjoined rats. Duncan soon arrived with an egg small enough that he could carry it with two fingers.

The horn sounded when the punk dropped the egg into the gold-colored basket. "And it's four to three, Villains!" Chris declared.

Duncan puffed his chest out. "Check it. I had to fight a crazy monster to get this egg. It was half lion, half bear, and half poison."

"Oh," Chris said, making Duncan's pride deflate. "If only there was a way to go back in time to see this _epic_ battle. That would be fun. Oh, what do I have here?" On the monitor, Chris held up a remote.

Duncan's eyes widened. "Aw man…"

Chris's image on the monitor transitioned to where Duncan was minutes beforehand. He sat on a branch in a tree next to a pudgy, blue, almost normal-looking bird in a nest. He had the egg in hand, and was speaking to the bird.

"I'm only borrowing this egg. I promise I'll bring it back," the punk promised.

The footage cut forward to the bird crying. Duncan grew a concerned expression, and tried to calm it down. "Oh no, please don't. Look, I can't stand the sight of you crying, so… I'm just gonna go, with your egg, and yeah… be back soon." Awkwardly, he dropped off the branch, leaving the bird there as it cried.

The video ended, and Chris returned to the screen. "When do you punch the pudgy in the face?" The host teased, emphasizing his question with a punch into his own palm. He saw Duncan stalking away with his shoulders hunched, and continued his ribbing before the punk got out of hearing range. "We're bringing you back for the next all-star season! It'll be total sweethearts versus total _bigger_ sweethearts." Alejandro watched the scene unfold, taking pleasure in Duncan's embarrassment, and Sierra actually took a moment away from the rats to gaze at her teammate in concern.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

"Sweetheart?" Duncan repeated in outrage. "That's it! I'm doing something bad, and I'm going to do it today!"

* * *

With Sammy in front and Jasmine in the back, the duo decided to carry the whole nest back to the starting point instead of just carrying the eggs.

"The score is still four to three, but I see a lot of eggs approaching. It's going to be a close one," Chris said over the loudspeakers.

Shortly after he made that announcement, Shawn and Gwen returned with the egg they had received from the mutant gopher.

"Nice!" Shawn cheered as the horn blared.

"The score is now five to three for the villains," Chris corrected.

The rats in Sierra's arms began to thrash, and Sierra did her best to calm them down. "It's okay, Blog. It's okay, Post… ow!" She yelped when the rat named Post bit her finger. "Since you just hatched, I really hope you don't have rabies."

Outside the Fun Zone, Chris and Chef watched the blogger interact with the mutants. "You know," Chris mentioned to his work buddy, "we should only bring back the _sane_ contestants."

Chef nodded in agreement.

* * *

"What is that?" Gwen asked, pointing as Cody arrived with his team's fourth egg. The horn blared again, but nobody paid attention to it.

Nearing the baskets, Jasmine and Sammy upgraded their stride into a jog. "My arms are getting tired," Sammy said.

"Just a bit further, we're nearly there," encouraged Jasmine.

"The heroes are up to four, but they're still one behind the villains!" The host updated as the contestants stared tensely at the girls coming with the large nest.

Not too far behind the girls, Sugar and Topher ran to catch up, the former with her third egg in hand.

Glancing at the opposing team for a moment, Alejandro hollered, "Sugar! Throw the egg to me!"

Sugar hesitated for a moment, huffing, "Fine, but this is my egg, you hear?" She chucked it over.

Sammy and Jasmine both gasped when they saw the egg zip by them. "No!" Sammy even cried out.

Alejandro held out his hands to catch it. Sugar stopped running, and Topher halted next to her, his eyes wide.

The egg spun through the air.

The charmer caught it expertly, and turned around to set the egg in the basket. The horn sounded a final time.

"Six to four, the villains win!" The villains started to cheer, and the heroes groaned at their defeat. At that point, Duncan came back from wherever he was sulking. "Now, before we head home, did anyone leave anything behind that they'd like to go get?" While most of the cast exchanged confused gazes, Sugar hid a sneaky smile and Topher scowled at her out the corner of his eye. "Just checking," Chris said when nobody moved, or somebody gave him a strange look.

* * *

The campers and their host prepared to leave Boney Island. Walking down the beach with Alejandro, Topher leaned over to whisper in his alliance partner's ear.

"We have a problem. The invincibility statue has been found," Topher informed him.

Alejandro frowned, ceasing his walk. "And how _exactly_ is that a problem?"

Topher stopped next to him. "Someone else has it." So as not to look suspicious to the others, he continued walking.

The charmer scowled deeply, and pursing his lips, followed his partner.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Someone else has the statue, he says," Alejandro said, his arms folded over his chest. "By that context, I can only assume that our plans now have an obstacle. I am not looking forward to finding out who the new owner is."

* * *

Later that evening, Gwen stood on the porch of the spa hotel. She took a deep breath, and then exhaled. She walked down the steps towards something the camera couldn't see.

The angle shifted to show the mess hall, which has been mostly untouched since the season started. Duncan sat on the steps leading up to the lodge, poking at the dirt with a stick.

"What are you doing over here?" Gwen inquired, coming into the camera's view.

Duncan smiled at her arrival. "Hey, babe. Nothing much, just needed time by myself. Congrats on winning the challenge."

Gwen shifted uncomfortably at the kind words. "Uh, thanks. Mind if I sit?"

"Go ahead."

The loner girl sat beside her boyfriend, silently watching Duncan prod at the dirt for a moment. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Sure, what?" Duncan continued messing around, not even looking up at the tone in his girlfriend's voice.

"Duncan, I can't do this anymore."

He paused, and looked up at her this time. "What do you mean? Are you going to quit the game?"

"No, I'm not quitting the game," Gwen clarified. "I meant I can't do _this_ anymore. Us." She gestured to the two of them.

Duncan grimaced. "Aw crap, is this because we haven't spent enough time together lately? It's that stupid swap's fault, but if we stick it out a few more rounds, we can hang more once the teams merge."

"It's not that. I just don't have feelings for you anymore!" She blurted out, and then covered her mouth when she realized what she just said.

He stared at her, stunned. "Babe…"

At his nickname for her, she pulled her hands away from her mouth. "Please don't call me that again."

"Why," Duncan began to ask, but the one word was enough of a question for her.

"Because the spark is gone, okay? The last time you kissed me, I didn't feel anything when I usually do." Gwen stood up, moving around to stand in front of him. "And since we found out Courtney wasn't on the season, I've felt more and more uncomfortable."

Duncan raised half his unibrow. "Since when does _Courtney_ have anything to do with our relationship?"

"I don't know, _everything_!" She snapped, spreading out her arms incredulously. "We kissed while you two were still together, she got upset, and every time I tried to apologize, she wouldn't listen! I got put on the _villains' team_ for this! What we did was cheating, Duncan, and I'm done living with the guilt!"

Duncan stood from his seat on the stairs. "So what if she got upset, she gets upset if her orange juice is too pulpy. So what if you were put on the villains' team, bad guys are cool. Why should any of that matter? I love you."

"Well, I don't. Not anymore. You cheated on your girlfriend, with me, and I had too many feelings for you to realize that until it was too late." She stared him straight in the eye. "Do you really want a relationship based on cheating someone else? Because that's _not_ okay."

Duncan stared back at her, not saying a word.

Gwen nodded to herself. "That's what I thought. Look, you're one of the best friends I've ever had, and we can still have fun hanging out, but being in a relationship just isn't for us. I'm sorry it had to end like this, but I'm not sorry for what I said."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them, neither unsure what to say next.

"Are you okay with all this?" Gwen checked when Duncan averted his eyes.

He sighed heavily. "No, not right now. But I'll probably be fine after a while."

"That's all I'm asking for." She gave him a grateful smile.

"Hey campers," Chris's voice announced over the loudspeakers, "It's ceremony time! Get your butts over to the bonfire, and I'll see you in a few! McLean out!"

"Guess we better go," Duncan said once the announcement was finished.

"Yeah." The now former lovers walked beside one another in the host's indicated direction.

* * *

A flash transition showed the Vultures sitting in the peanut gallery. Alejandro and Topher sat in the top row, leaving Sugar, Shawn, and Gwen on the bottom.

"Congrats on the victory, villains," Chris complimented, "and Sugar, since you brought the most eggs back to your team's basket, you win a special surprise that'll come in handy at the next challenge." The Vultures exchanged devious grins at the mention of an advantage. "But, I'm keeping it a secret until then because why spoil the surprise?" The host then turned his attention to the losing team of the night. "Tonight, a hero goes home. Time to vote!"

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"It's all your fault that Gwen's on a team that makes her _miserable_ ," the geek said as he scribbled on a picture.

* * *

(Confessional- Duncan)

Duncan angrily drew on a picture. "You've been asking for this, dork."

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

The cheerleader looked between two photos, unsure which one she should pick.

* * *

"I've tallied the votes," Chris informed the losers, standing before them with a single picture in hand. "Tonight's flushee is… Duncan!" He held up the punk's photo with a big, red 'X' crossed over it.

Cody pumped his fists victoriously. "Yes!"

The newly eliminated camper snorted, sneering at his former team. "Real nice, guys."

"Duncan, what happened?" Chris asked, almost mocking as he dropped the photo without a care. "You were such a _good_ guy doing such _good_ deeds and being such a _good_ team player."

The punk scowled at the host's jeering, and got up from his stump seat. He marched over to Chris, and grabbed the collar of his shirt, glaring directly into his eyes. "Let's get one thing straight, McLean. You can put me on a team of heroes, but I'll _always_ be a bad guy."

The viewpoint shifted momentarily behind Chris's back, where Duncan's free hand swiftly snatched a leather wallet from the host's back pocket.

The viewpoint returned to the regular one, and Duncan roughly shoved past Chris, heading down to the dock.

Chris frowned at Duncan, wiping imaginary dirt off his shirt, and resumed his smile when he turned his attention to the peanut gallery. "And who's heading to Boney Island?"

Shawn voluntarily rose from his seat. "I'll go. I kinda want to investigate the Fun Zone some more."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"And get away from those guys planning to eliminate me behind my back. What if they become zombies in the middle of the night, and decide to try and make me one of them first?" The conspiracy nut reasoned.

* * *

Down at the Dock of Shame, Shawn boarded the Boat of Losers. Having been his team before the swap, Cody, Sierra, and Sammy all waved to bid him farewell for the night while Jasmine merely watched him leave. Once the boat left, the Hamsters turned to watch Duncan be flushed. As a new amicable ex-girlfriend, Gwen came down to see him off as well.

"I'll be rooting for you, Gwen," Duncan said from inside the giant toilet bowl.

Gwen gave him a wave of her hand. "Thanks! Bye, Duncan!"

The toilet's flush was activated, and the punk screamed as he spun around before disappearing down the drain. A wave of water splashed out of the toilet bowl upon the flush's completion, and Chris managed to open his umbrella before he got hit. Gwen and the heroes didn't have that luxury.

Several of them groaned in disgust while Cody shook his soaked arms once. "Seriously? Again?"

Smirking, Chris tossed his remote and umbrella aside to make his outro. "Four heroes and five villains remain. Who's next to be thrown home by the throne? Find out when we return with more Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **Bonus Clip**

The footage faded into a calm beach scene. All seemed peaceful until a rough wave crashed onto the shore. When the water receded, a thoroughly wet Duncan was left lying on the hot sand.

"Augh," the punk groaned in pain. "I'm pretty sure that's not how toilets work."

Two pairs of sandaled feet walked into view next to his head. One pair of feet was white and thinner, and the other pair of feet were tanned and thicker.

"You okay, dude?" A familiar voice asked, causing Duncan to look up as best he could.

The camera changed to Duncan's viewpoint, showing none other than Geoff and DJ, the former smiling down at his friend while the latter had a concerned frown.

"Oh man, am I glad to see you guys." Duncan grinned, his mood changing as he pushed himself up. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to get you, man." DJ clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, smiling now that he saw the punk was okay.

Geoff bumped fists with Duncan. "Dude, you could not have picked a better place to wash up. Easter Island is awesome!"

The view zoomed out to show the familiar rock heads of Rapa Nui.

"Seriously? That dumb toilet sent me all the way out here?" Duncan looked around, disbelieving.

DJ nodded in confirmation. "Somehow, yeah." He frowned as a thought came to him. "Sorry about your break-up, man."

Duncan's unibrow shot up. "You know about that?"

Geoff said, "Yeah, everybody back at the hangout knows, well, except Courtney and that Amy chick. They weren't there."

"Where are they, then?"

DJ shrugged helplessly. "Not sure. Chef didn't say when he came and got them."

Geoff added, "Last we checked, Noah was looking into it. Seriously though, you going to be okay after what happened?" For all the party boy's optimism, he knew when to show concern.

"Ask me again in a few days or something. After that, I'm kinda glad to be out. I need some space away from her now," answered Duncan.

Geoff wrapped a comforting arm around his friend's shoulders. "When we get back, we're going to get your favorite pizza and soda, and watch all your favorite movies until you feel better. And it's all on me and Deej."

"I'm down for that," DJ agreed before hesitantly adding, "except the scary movies. Count me out for those." He motioned with his hand. "Let's get going. Our ride's this way."

As the three friends left the beach, Duncan spoke casually, though his tone had a slight boast. "Thanks for the offer, but… what if we got everything on _Chris's_ dime instead?"

* * *

 **Duncan- 10th**

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Thus, Duncan got an elimination that didn't involve him getting arrested. That was my biggest issue with his original elimination, another being it saved Cameron again (as much as I love the little bubble guy) so he could get injured by Ezekiel. I tried to make a more satisfying ending to Duncan's bad boy on a hero team arc that didn't drag out until the merge. He got a sorta bittersweet ending, Gwen broke up with him, but he finally found a way to reclaim his badness that wasn't as outrageous as blowing up the former Playa. Also, he finally has a pre-merge exit that he can't return from. Just a note, Chris did not feel the theft, and didn't find out about it until later. The theft is what I'd call my signature scene because whenever I end up writing Chris in a story, somehow his wallet always ends up getting stolen by Duncan or someone else.**

 **Despite not being outright said in the original, the challenge was clearly a nod to World Tour's egg hunt on Easter Island. Here, I made sure to have Chris mention that as he has been doing with challenges so far. And because Alejandro already blindsided Heather, I decided I needed a new title for the episode. I like to think the title has a double-meaning, referencing the egg hunt between the two teams as well as Duncan's struggle in proving which side he's on. Meanwhile, Sugar managed to find the statue and earn the advantage. When I determined that the Vultures were winning this episode, I decided that the advantage for the next challenge should go to Sugar. Alejandro's epic showdown with his brother is too good to pass up, I lined up an interesting opponent for Topher, picking an opponent for Shawn was easy, and Gwen... not saying anything there. Aside from Fang, I couldn't come up with an interesting enemy that Sugar may have an issue with or fear of, so she got the reward by default.**

 **Gwen and Duncan's breakup was easily the most important scene of this episode. I wanted it to be more like Gwen's more sympathetic breakup with Trent, instead of that angry 'We're done!' from her and Duncan's inability to process how fast it went. The line "What we did was cheating, Duncan, and I'm done living with the guilt!" by Gwen was the first line I thought up for that scene, and I've waited for months to use it. And as AnonBrowser pointed out a couple chapters ago in a review, it was Duncan who cheated on his girlfriend with Gwen, not Gwen stealing Duncan from her, and that needed to be said. As I have never been in a real relationship or experienced a real breakup, I asked SideshowJazz1 for feedback regarding the scene, and made necessary tweaks she advised.**

 **Rapa Nui was chosen as the next flush location because of its tie to the day's challenge, and it's one of my favorite Total Drama locations. Mostly because I really enjoy the giant rock statues of everyone voted off and the jokes that came with them. Geoff and DJ were an easy choice to pick up Duncan, they're his best friends on the show and it's been way too long since we saw the three of them hang out.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	20. TDAS Episode 7

**SideshowJazz1:** You're welcome. Sugar definitely throws a wrench in the Topjandro alliance's plans. Yeah, I hated her naming the rats after Cody, and since they're conjoined twins, I thought 'Blog plus Post' would be hilarious and clever. I'm also glad that I could make Duncan's bad boy arc better for you.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** You're welcome. I think once she got rid of Al, she'd have found a way to use it so she could get rid of Gwen somehow.

 **Acosta perez jose ramiro:** Thanks. I worked really hard to make that scene end respectfully.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Agreed about Duncan staying gone early. I wouldn't say Cody never got to do things in World Tour. He made a video for Japan (with Sierra), led his team through the mine field, and built his team a boat (in the shape of Gwen's head), and those are only a few examples.

 **AnonBrowser:** Glad you enjoyed Duncan's elimination, and you're welcome for the mention. We'll see about that match between Amy and Sammy.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** Yeah, he really needed an early elimination. Yeah, Sugar plus invincibility statue equals trouble.

 **That British Guy:** True, and he wasn't arrested, so that's a bonus.

 **Critica7:** Glad you enjoyed the chapter. We'll have to see how long Cody can last among the other major players. It pleases me that I have made someone else a fan of Topher. Guy deserves more fans, and he's one of several characters that could use some more.

 **StarHeart Specials:** Thanks! It was important to me that Duncan and Gwen got a real breakup instead of that shoddy one canon gave them. As for Chris's wallet, how long it takes for Chris to notice depends on how he keeps track of his stuff. Interesting predictions, today we'll see if they get answered.

 **Phenomenal Ultra Instinct:** Yeah, that's a thing I made sure of when I wrote his elimination. And yeah, I wanted to do their breakup justice. That's part of the reason why the breakup went as smoothly as it did. Courtney would've just been an irritating third wheel.

 **Knight:** He is a good fighter...

 **Joel Connell:** It's fine. All that matters is that you reviewed this time, and talked about what you missed. And yeah, a character as strategic as Heather should be given an equally strategic elimination. Thanks, it was important to me that the breakup was handled better. I can see why you would want a scene like that, but it didn't happen because a) it would've made Duncan's elimination more blatant, and b) it was important to me that Gwen come to that conclusion herself.

 **Derick Lindsey:** Yeah, the Geoff-DJ-Duncan reunion was long overdue. Trust me, Topher's opponent will be unexpected. I'll be keeping your predictions in mind.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, I wanted to write a more respectful breakup for the characters, and the cheating had to be brought up. It was also important to me that Duncan didn't get arrested because even I thought that was a bit much. Sorry that Sugar finding the idol wasn't your favorite moment, but rest assured the statue will see its use at some point.

 **Star Saber21:** I think it's a better breakup than the canon one. Yeah, Chris's wallet getting stolen is one of my favorite forms of Chris getting karma for all the stuff he pulled on the contestants over the years.

 **LovelyLuly:** Even though I don't like Duncan that much, I found his arrest to be going way too far. Yeah, it was one of the things I wanted to improve from canon the most.

 **Magic Detective:** Don't expect too big of a reaction. It's not going to be much of a plot line since I don't want to give Duncan too much attention after he's supposed to be eliminated, but there will be a couple small moments showing the aftermath. Believe me, I think he'd have an epic reaction to realizing that, but his reaction is going to be a bit subdued.

 **Guest:** They probably would, but they haven't had a chance to interact since they're on different teams and the challenges don't provide much time to interact.

With the reviews out of the way, I'll give a friendly reminder that Cast Swap has a TVTropes page that is always looking for improvement, so go over and add to it if you can.

Now, let's box with some phobias!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own some shirts and a season one DVD.

Episode 7- Suckers Punched

"Last week on Total Drama All-Stars," Chris began to narrate over footage of the Fun Zone, "the campers were treated to a day in the Fun Zone." The contestants were shown dodging the attention of the larger mutants. "Where anything can happen, except fun."

Sugar's discovery of the invincibility statue inside the goat egg was replayed. "Sugar found the invincibility statue, but unfortunately, so did Topher." The wannabe host was shown watching Sugar from behind a boulder. A flash transitioned to Sierra fussing over Blog and Post, the conjoined mutant rats. "And Sierra adopted a new… uh, pet." Sugar was shown throwing the Vultures' last egg to Alejandro, who set it in the basket. "In the end, the Vultures got the victory."

Another flash showed Gwen meeting Duncan in front of the Mess Hall. "Gwen finally mustered up the guts to break up with Duncan. Just in time too because Duncan ended up being the Hamster to take the flush of the night." Duncan was displayed glaring at his former team, quickly cutting to the shot of him getting flushed.

Returning to real time, Chris sat in a lounge chair at season one's Playa des Losers with a cappuccino in hand. "Can the villains keep their lead? Will the heroes live up to their name?" Growing annoyed, he cupped a hand next to his mouth. "Will my breakfast get here before lunch?" He resumed his smile and concluded, "Find out right here on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

The episode started off on an eerie melody.

Alejandro was heard groaning, "Ugh, no… Would you get out of here?" The camera zoomed in on the spa hotel. A cut inside showed Alejandro dozing in his sleeping bag, only he was flinching every few seconds. "No, stay back! Don't _touch_ her! Gah!" The charmer's eyes shot open, and he sat up in bed, panting heavily. Looking around, he sighed in relief. "It was all a dream."

"Geez… rough dream, Al?" Alejandro looked across the room to see Topher lounging on his own bed, watching him.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

Alejandro held a hand to his forehead. "Last night, I had a dream about my older, smarter, better-looking brother, Jose." Shuddering, he continued on. "He always calls me 'Al', and I hate it. More than mutant fire beetles and conditioners that don't detangle."

* * *

In the girls' room, Gwen flopped onto her bed, ready for the day. "I'm pretty much all alone now. When am I ever going to catch a break?"

The door to the girls' bedroom slammed open, allowing Sugar to enter. "Found it!" Her abrupt entrance startled Gwen into falling off her bed with a yelp.

"Ow!" The loner girl griped. Rubbing her head, she sat up to glance at Sugar. "Found _what?_ "

"That book you've been looking high and low for? I found it." Sugar held up a familiar gray book, one that hadn't been seen since episode three of the season.

Gwen gasped sharply. "My diary!" She snatched it from Sugar, and flipped through the pages rapidly. "Where'd you find it?" She then looked at the outside covers. "And why is it covered in _soot_?"

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I stashed it in the fireplace at the kitchen," Sugar explained to the audience. "Since Chef has been bringing breakfast to us all at the loser cabin, I figured nobody would think to visit there all season."

* * *

"So, I reached up that there chimney, and there it was," Sugar relayed the false story to her teammate.

Holding her diary to her chest, Gwen gave the pageant queen a one-armed hug. "Thanks, Sugar. Nice to know there's some decency on this team." As Gwen hugged her, Sugar smirked deviously behind the girl's back.

* * *

Jasmine, Sammy, Cody, and Sierra all sat on the loser cabin's porch, eating their breakfast that Chef had delivered. To their surprise, it wasn't gruel like the past few mornings, but it did have something else wrong with it.

Sammy held up a piece of her toast warily. "Uh, I'm pretty sure that green toast is only supposed to exist in a kid's storybook."

Sierra, who cradled her pet rats, offered, "At least everything else looks okay." She picked up her two strips of bacon, and held them in front of the rats' faces. "Here you go, Blog and Post. A nutritious breakfast is important to starting a new day. Eat up!"

The rats sniffed at the bacon, and then took big bites of the meat, unintentionally sinking their teeth into Sierra's hand.

"Ow!" The blogger cried out, yanking her hand away as the rats ate the bacon. "That was very naughty! The day's just started and I think you've already lost your dessert privileges."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"Twins are a _major_ handful," she informed the viewers, holding the rats in her lap while she made her confessional. "My little Cody Junior never gave me this much trouble by himself."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

The geek fiddled with Sierra's phone, which was now held together by duct tape and a wire antenna. "I think Sierra's trying to distract herself from being unable to use her phone. Once I get this fixed and back to her, she should be okay again." He tapped a few buttons, testing the device. "Right now, I'm just happy that she didn't name those rats after me."

* * *

Jasmine tried a bite of the toast, and immediately spat it out. Setting her plate aside, she stood up. "That's it. I'm going foraging. Whatever I find edible in the woods is _bound_ to be kilometers better than this." She motioned to the plate.

Before she could go anywhere, Chris's voice came over the loudspeakers. "Good soon-to-be painful morning, everyone! Head to the Chrisseum, pronto! Today's challenge isn't going to hurt itself."

* * *

A short while later, everyone except Shawn, the camper serving exile, was walking through the woods. Sierra had woven a carrier to hold the rats, and even as they walked, the twin mutants were giving her problems.

"Ow! That's enough, you two!" Sierra tried to discipline them when one clawed at her hair. Sammy watched with a grimace as the other barfed in the blogger's face.

The camera panned ahead of her past Sugar and Gwen to the pair of Alejandro and Topher, the latter two looking back at Sugar before turning to each other.

"Are you absolutely certain that Sugar has the statue?" Alejandro whispered to his co-conspirator.

Topher nodded. "Yeah. I'm _telling_ you we need to change our plans, and go after her first."

The charmer hummed thoughtfully. "If we aim to get the statue out of play, then we'll have to move cautiously. Flushing out the statue means the person with the next amount of votes will be eliminated instead of her."

"And it can't be either of us, so how do we do that?"

"I believe we'll have team up with Shawn and Gwen. If we can get one of them to vote with us, and then have the other figure out how Sugar's going to vote, we can use their vote to counteract hers and force a tie."

Topher sighed. "Which means we'll have to work together with who we were targeting in the first place. Have I ever mentioned how bad that statue is when it's not in our hand?"

Behind the pair, Gwen eyed them skeptically before turning towards Sugar. "Hey, listen. I'm super grateful you found my diary and all, but I might need your help with something else."

Sugar rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

"Shawn overheard them planning to go after him or me next. Could you join us so we have the majority and vote one of them off instead?" pleaded Gwen.

Sugar huffed, "Sorry, no can do. A pageant winner _never_ gets to the top by working together with others. You and that nut are on your own." Her word on the subject said, she sped up her walk.

Gwen reached a hand out to her. "But we really need…" She sighed when she realized she wouldn't get to speak further. A scream sounded out behind her, causing her to look up and see what the commotion was. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

An intern ran past her, his head being clawed at by Blog and Post. Sierra ran by moments later.

"Leave that intern's face alone," Sierra scolded the rats. Gwen grimaced.

* * *

"Shawn!" Chef called out, the scene flashing to Boney Island. The cook walked up to the gate that divided the Fun Zone from the rest of the island. "It's time to head back." He reached behind his back, retrieving a remote. "Hang on, I'll open the gate."

"No need!" answered Shawn. Chef looked up, and saw the conspiracy nut jump from a tall tree to the wall of logs. His foot landed on the exterior side of the wall, and he vaulted clear of it, somersaulting through the air. Dismounting perfectly, he turned to face Chef and pointed at himself cockily. "I can get myself out."

Chef muttered something under his breath, putting the remote back where he had grabbed it from, and then walked over to Shawn. "You're a real weird kid, you know that? Willingly going back in there."

Shawn shrugged. "I just wanted to examine the layout to see if the same method of containment could hold zombies. If we don't want them to spread, we've got to secure them in an unescapable area."

"Like I said, real weird kid." Chef rolled his eyes, marching past the boy and seizing him by the back of his orange vest. "Come on. The challenge is starting soon."

"But I didn't even get to design a gate that the zombies couldn't open _themselves_!" The boy protested while being dragged away.

* * *

A short time later, the contestants that weren't exiled were gathered in the same location that the fourth season finale took place in.

Chris greeted the contestants. "Welcome to the Camp Wawanakwa Coliseum!" Notably, he was standing in a standard elevated boxing ring with elastic ropes

"Wait, boxing? Are you serious?" Sammy asked, seeing the ring. Beside her, Cody gulped.

"We're going to be fighting?" The geek added.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Drama Brothers, if you see this- dedicate one of our songs to me if I don't make it out of the ring without entering a _coma_ ," Cody said.

* * *

"Hey, Shawn, find any evidence of zombies in the Fun Zone?" Chris teased upon seeing Chef and Shawn return.

"Don't even joke about that," Shawn sternly told Chris, walking over to join the others.

Chef leaned in to whisper to Chris while pointing to the conspiracy nut, "That kid jumped the fence separating the mutants from the rest of the island." Chris looked at Shawn in surprise.

Shawn joined Gwen and Sugar. "Status update?"

Gwen motioned to Sugar beside her. "She refused." He frowned at that, and then turned to pay attention to Chris. After a moment, he cast a leery eye at the pageant queen.

Enthusiastically, Chris raised his arms. "Greetings, players! The recipe for today's disaster is a hearty helping of season one's No Pain, No Gain challenge with a pinch of Phobia Factor for extra zing."

"Ooh, does it have some horseradish?" Sugar inquired, licking her lips.

Chris pointed at her while walking over to something. "One, horseradish is _gross_. Two, get ready to sink your soon-to-be-missing teeth into the Wheel of Misfortune!" He arrived at his destination, and the camera zoomed out to show a wooden wheel divided into eight sections with a differently colored silhouette picture taped in each one. At the top of the wheel was a pink silhouette of a familiar mutant, clockwise to that was the silhouette of a dark blue shark, an orange bear, a light blue unfamiliar person, a brown familiar figure, a red familiar figure that resembled one of the contestants, a gray familiar figure, and a purple silhouette of a familiar recurring character.

"Rules are simple," the host continued to explain, "Spin the wheel, and go a full two minutes with whatever the wheel lands on. Win the match, and earn your team a point." As he explained, Chef reappeared, wearing the pink dress he wore during elimination ceremonies in season two. "Fights will be judged impartially by Chef and myself. First team to win three battles is the champ."

Cody and Sammy were paying attention when they saw Sierra step forward with her rats back in the carrier.

"But who's going to watch Blog and Post while I fight?" Sierra inquired.

Chris leveled a flat look at her. "No one, if they value their lives." Growing excited again, he raised a finger. "Let's get ready to _pum-mel_!"

"Wait a cotton picking minute, what about my rewards from the last challenge?" Interrupted Sugar, who glared at the host.

He stared at her with a blank look before sighing. "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that, but for being MVP in the last challenge, you don't have to box and the Vultures get a point."

The scoreboard above the stadium dinged as a point was added to the villains' score. The team of five cheered while Sugar boasted, "You're welcome!"

"Since the heroes lost yesterday, they go first. Who's rumble ready?" Chris pointed the question at the Hamsters.

Sierra raised her hand. "I'll go! That way I can look after my babies for the rest of the challenge once I'm done." Removing the carrier and the rats, she shoved them into Cody's arms. "Here Cody, it's about time you be their daddy like you said you'd be."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Um, I'm _pretty_ sure I didn't sign up for this," the geek remarked in a confessional, the carrier with Sierra's rats around his neck. One of them stretched up and sunk its teeth into his chin. "Ouch! Let go!"

* * *

Once Sierra spun the wheel, Chris sent Chef a wink over Sierra's shoulder, which the man in the dress returned before tapping a pedal at the bottom of the wheel with his foot. The wheel slowed down and the ticker stopped on the picture of the pink silhouette.

The blogger gasped, instantly recognizing it. "No way! I'd never fight my sweetie pet!"

Chris grinned, eager to correct her. "Oh, you're not fighting your pet. You're fighting your pet's mother!"

A hatch in the boxing ring opened, and a large, two-headed rat emerged from below, wearing boxing gloves on its forepaws.

Sierra gulped once she saw her opponent. "I'm not afraid of a few heads and a lot of teeth… and a bunch of claws." As she lost her nerves, Chef came over and outfitted her with a pair of boxing gloves similar to the ones her opponent wore. The man knew she wasn't going to move on her own, so he picked her up and threw her into the ring. When she landed in the ring, the rats' actual mother roared in her face. That was apparently the snapback that Sierra needed. She glared in return. "Bring it on, garbage breath!"

Jumping in close, she threw several punches that connected, but unfortunately did nothing as the mother rat did not flinch at the hits. Sierra noticed she wasn't having any effect, and looked her enemy in the eye, only to find them smirking deviously at her. The blogger giggled awkwardly.

The camera cut away to Jasmine and Sammy, and both girls winced away in shock, the latter going as far as covering her eyes with her hands while sounds of a scuffle ensued. There were yelps of pain from Sierra a few moments after one another. When the cameras returned to her, she had a black eye. She panted heavily, only for the mother rat to knock her out of the ring with one final uppercut.

"Ooh, that's going to hurt badly," Jasmine commented, cringing as she watched Sierra fly up into the air from the punch. The camera pulled back to show while she and Sammy watched their third female teammate, the mother rat took Blog and Post away from Cody, along with the carrier. Cody barely had time to react before Sierra landed on top of him.

The purple-haired girl groaned, sitting on top of her friend. "I'm pretty sure that's not how adoption works."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

She blew her nose into a tissue. "It's not fair! Why is it whenever I try to adopt a baby animal, their mother always takes them back?"

* * *

As Jasmine and Sammy helped their teammates back to their feet, Chris turned his attention to the villains. "That's no point for the heroes. Villain time! Come on up, Topher!"

"This isn't part of some sneaky plan to make sure I never become your successor as host, is it?" Topher raised a brow at the man.

"Just spin the wheel, dude," Chris replied flatly.

Topher spun the wheel, and it stopped on the brown silhouette.

"Hey, that looks like-"

The host nodded. "Yep! For your fight, you'll be facing… Chef Hatchet!" The camera cut to Chef, still in his dress, putting on a pair of boxing gloves.

Topher looked at Chef, and then glanced at Chris. "But, I'm not _afraid_ of Chef."

"True," Chris conceded, "but you've had some, um, beef with how he does things around here, and let's just say the feeling is mutual."

Sammy looked up at Jasmine beside her. "Should we be concerned about who we're fighting against? Sierra and Topher both got really personal opponents."

Cody, who had been standing next to her, tapped his chin. "You might be onto something. Now that I think about it, the odds for the worst possible outcome should be really low."

In the ring, Topher stood before Chef, wearing matching gloves to Chef's. "Come on, Chef. You have to know all those things I said about you weren't serious. Once I run the show, of course I wouldn't get rid of you. Who'd do all the heavy lifting?"

The cook smirked. "I'm going to enjoy this."

When he raised an arm, Topher reacted by putting up both of his gloves in front of his face. "Watch the hair!"

Against a bright yellow backdrop, Chef's hits to Topher were shown. The wannabe host was punched in the gut, then in the butt, and Chef finished with a left hook that sent Topher flying into the ropes, which launched him back toward Chef, who used both fists to pound him into the floor.

"Time's up!" Chris announced. "No point for the villains either. The score is still 1-0, Vultures. Hamsters, might be time to tie things up!"

"I guess I'll give it a shot. After fighting Scarlett, how bad can my opponent be?" Sammy stated, moving past Chris to the Wheel of Misfortune and giving it a spin.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"When Cody mentioned the odds, I had a bad feeling about who I was going to be fighting," she said cryptically.

* * *

The wheel eventually landed on the red silhouette.

Seeing the results, Sammy slouched in resignation. "Of course…"

From below the ring came none other than-

"I'm back, losers!" shouted the obnoxious voice of Sammy's twin, Amy, who still had the black blotches all over her visible skin. Only her hair was back to normal length since she lost it in the mine the previous season. "I'll beat Samey so bad, the producers will want me to _replace_ her as an all-star!"

Cody and Sierra flinched while Jasmine facepalmed in annoyance. "Dingo's teeth…"

"Amy," Sammy groaned, throwing her head back irritably.

Chris grinned, seeing the tension the bad twin brought. "Ooh, we might be seeing a cat fight in the boxing ring. Does Samey have what it takes to beat her older sister by seventeen seconds?"

"Hours-," Amy snappishly corrected.

"Minutes-," Sammy replied, correcting both.

"Or will the big sister shove the little sister down again? Find out after the break right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" Chris finished his speech, letting the footage fade to black.

* * *

When the show returned, the match bell rang and Sammy was in the ring with her sister. Both twins were wearing boxing gloves.

"The show must be rigged or something," Amy taunted, "because there's _no way_ you'd stay past the first episode otherwise."

Sammy glared at her twin. "And yet, who was eliminated during our team's first elimination last time?"

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

"Ever since we got home last year, Amy's been insisting that I cheated somehow," Sammy told the viewing audience. "Anyone with eyes or ears or both can tell I got as far as I did fair and square. It's like she's so thick-headed she can't imagine that I could possibly do better than her at something. I've gotten better at ignoring all her jabs and accusations since I've got friends now, but she's still a real pain sometimes."

* * *

When the footage returned to the fight, the twins were already throwing punches at each other. After a hit, Sammy would yelp then retort with a punch of her own, making Amy shriek.

"Wow, this fight is so good!" Chris cheered from the sidelines. He put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if we can get these two in the ring on one of those pay-per-view matches."

"What did I even do to make you hate me this much?" Sammy asked, dodging a punch and throwing one back. "Seriously, what?"

"You were _born_ , that's what!" Amy shouted.

Sammy scowled at her sister. "You don't even remember that. Come on, give me a _real_ answer."

"Fine, you want an answer besides the truth? Remember the show we did with our class in second grade? The one with the stars?"

Sammy slugged her. "Yeah, what about it?"

"You were cast as star number one, and I was made star number two. You know how insulting that was? I'm the first twin, always have been in everything, and then I get made the _second_ star? No way!" Amy threw another punch.

"Really?" Sammy gawked at her. "That's what you've been hating me for since we were seven?"

"There's more. I talked to aunt Mildred afterwards, and she said _I_ should've been star number one, not you! She told me that it was just the beginning of you hogging the spotlight, and to not let it happen!"

The younger twin couldn't help but groan. "Aunt Mildred is crazy, Amy, or have you not noticed everything she's done the past several years?"

"Well, even if she's a total psycho, she was right about one thing. I'm the number one twin, and as long as I can do anything about it, it'll always be Amy before Samey."

Hearing her loathed nickname again, Sammy felt her eye twitch. "My name is _Sammy_!" Rearing her arm back, she socked her sister in the face.

The force was rough enough that Amy actually stumbled onto her back. "Ow, my eye!"

Chris raised his arms grandly as a bell dinged. "And Samey wins a point. The score is one all."

Sammy pointed a gloved hand at the host. "Don't _make_ me punch you too, Chris."

"Fine," Chris corrected, rolling his eyes. " _Sammy_ wins a point. Happy?"

"Yes." Shedding her gloves, she climbed out of the ring and was met by cheers from her team.

* * *

(Confessional- Sammy)

The good twin sighed contently. "That felt so good. If I can vent like that on this show regularly, I'd be open to coming back again some time."

* * *

"Villain time! Who's up for a round?" Chris asked the eviler of the two teams.

Alejandro stepped forward. "I'll put us back in the lead."

As she watched the charmer spin the wheel, Gwen quipped to Shawn, "I hope he gets Heather." The conspiracy nut actually chuckled at her joke.

Having heard that comment, Alejandro's confident smile turned into a concerned frown as he returned his attention to the wheel.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"There's only one person I'd rather fight less than Heather, and that person is," he cryptically stated.

* * *

The wheel stopped on the blue silhouette, and it was a silhouette that he appeared familiar with.

His eyes went wide. "No! It can't be…" Almost hesitantly, he faced the boxing ring.

A puff of smoke appeared in the ring, and when it dissipated, it revealed a young adult man with the same skin tone and brown hair as Alejandro himself, the only difference being he had gray eyes. The young man also had a similar style of dress to Alejandro, wearing a blue shirt over a gray one, gray slacks, black boots, and a bull head necklace exactly like the one Alejandro wore.

Alejandro's teammates gasped when they saw him.

The charmer's eyes narrowed. "Jose."

Chris held up two fingers eagerly. "Two siblings fights back-to-back? I _love_ this show!"

A cut forward had Alejandro, boxing gloves at the ready, in the ring with his older brother. When the bell rang for the match to begin, Alejandro's elder brother immediately started with the verbal taunts.

"Beunos dias, Al," Jose greeted, "you look tired and in need of exfoliation."

"I exfoliate once a week," Alejandro shot back, "and the only thing I'm tired of is you!"

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"I _knew_ my dream was a sign!" The charmer exclaimed. "My whole life, Jose has been better than me at everything- academics, sports, and yes, even personal grooming. Well, not this time!" A moment after making his vow, he realized something. "Now that I speak of this out loud, this sounds almost exactly like Sammy and her…"

* * *

"Enough with the touching family reunion! Start punching each other," demanded Chris, who had grown annoyed by the lack of action.

He got his wish, for the Burromuerto brothers began throwing swings at one another. Each punch that connected, however, had an interesting pattern.

Shawn was the first to pick up on it. "Why are they only doing body hits? Every other fight has had at least one punch to the face."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

The charmer smiled into a hand mirror. "It is the family code," he said, answering Shawn's inquiry. "Not the face."

* * *

(Confessional- Jose)

Alejandro's brother unintentionally copied his posture, mirror and all. "Never the face."

* * *

Chris began to watch with interest once more. "Ooh, this is going to be so close!"

Jose dodged another hit from Alejandro, and began to taunt, "Your technique is almost as embarrassing as the way your _girlfriend_ with the unattractive personality burned you on national television."

The camera zoomed in on Alejandro's face, catching his reaction to the insult. His eyes narrowed, his teeth gnashed, and a growl built up in his throat.

Apparently, Jose said the worst thing he could've to his younger brother. That was a really bad idea on his part.

As Jose began to chuckle, Alejandro rocketed forward, punching him in the stomach. "That's for calling me 'Al'!" He jumped around behind his brother, delivering a fist to the butt. "That's for always hogging the bathroom mirror!"

The heroes all stared in stunned horror as he threw another punch off-screen, calling out, "And for swapping my soap with a urinal cake!" The footage cut back to him, winding up his arms. "And this is for calling _any aspect of Heather unattractive_!"

Jose was already beginning to sway on his feet, but Alejandro came at him with both fists at once. He was thrown back into the ropes, which threw him back to the center of the ring. The force was too much, and he fell on his face right in front of his younger sibling, who took a knee and raised a gloved fist in victory as the bell rang.

"Whoa! The villains get a point," Chris declared, blown away by the final move. "And now we all know how Alejandro really feels about Heather."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Heather, I know you're watching." The charmer made a phone gesture with his hand. "Call me!"

* * *

"The score is now two to one, Villainous Vultures!" Chris announced. "Cody, Jasmine, one of you are next for the Heroic Hamsters."

Cody raised a hand in protest. "Wait, what's even the _point_ of spinning the wheel? The game is clearly rigged."

Everyone turned towards him, murmuring in shock.

"Think about it- Sierra goes up against Blog and Post's mother, Topher faces Chef, and both Alejandro and Sammy face siblings that they hate. The odds are way too low for these match-ups to be random!" Cody explained, counting on his fingers.

Gwen considered his words for a moment. "It does sound a little rigged."

Sugar snorted, glaring at Chris. "More like totally fixed."

Seeing his ploy was exposed, the host compromised, "How about this? I _guarantee_ that the next spinner will have a non-specific-to-their-personal-terror opponent. Okay?" He gave a nod to Chef, who grumpily backed away from the wheel.

Cody stepped forward, inclined to prove his point. He gave the wheel a spin. "Just watch. It'll be what I'm most afraid of."

The wheel stopped on the darker blue shark silhouette. "Or it'll be what _Sugar's_ most afraid of."

The geek gasped. "What?"

Shawn glanced at Sugar. "You're afraid of sharks?"

The pageant queen snorted again. "Sharks? Please. The only shark I have a problem with is that Fang feller, and I'm not even afraid of him. He's just annoying as all heck."

Fang rose out from under the ring, wearing boxing gloves and shark-sized mouth guards that protected his precious teeth.

"You mean I have to fight him?" Cody clarified, groaning afterward and looking skyward. "Me and my big mouth."

"That's right! Fang is back to beat the snot out of you guys. He's been itching to do that for a while now," Chris cheerfully informed the cast.

Once Cody was gloved up and in the arena, the bell rang to start the match. Once it began, the geek laughed hesitantly as he stared down his opponent. "At least I'm fighting someone else's fear instead of my own, right?"

In swift succession, Fang hit Cody twice, then knocked him back into the ropes, which forced him back the shark's way. Fang simply held out one arm, easily clotheslining the hero, who crashed outside of the ring that time.

Thankfully, Sammy acted as a cushion.

"Cody," Sierra gasped as she knelt next to her friend. "Are you okay?"

The geek moaned painfully, laying on top of Sammy. "I feel like my spleen was shoved up into my head…"

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"I feel so bad for Cody," the blogger stated sympathetically then turned her expression into one of fury. "Fang better hope we don't cross paths again real soon, because if we do, I'm taking that mammal fish tail down!" She pounded a fist into an open palm.

* * *

"Time's up and Fang wins," Chris announced, "no point for the heroes. Shawn, Gwen, who's going next?"

Shawn sighed, raising his hand. "I'll go. You've probably got a zombie for me, so let's get that dispatched and over with."

He spun the wheel, and it landed on the orange bear silhouette. "Nope, no zombie here. Just a big bear," the host corrected him.

"A bear?" Shawn repeated, his eyes going wide. "But-but I haven't trained to _fight_ bears!"

A bear appeared in the ring, and Cody, who was recovering from his fight, immediately snapped alert. "Gahahahah!" He screamed.

Jasmine looked down at him. "What's wrong?"

Sierra took it upon herself to explain. "Season one, paintball deer hunt challenge. He got mauled by a bear because it followed his chip crumbs. It became his new worst fear, right above failing to defuse a time bomb."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"You know, I'm starting to wish Cody didn't say anything about the challenge being rigged," the conspiracy nut stated in a nonchalantly bitter tone.

* * *

After Shawn was in the ring, the bear growled at him. Shawn considered it a slight grace that the bear's claws were covered with gloves so it couldn't properly maul him.

"Look, you don't want to fight me. I'm not the one that's afraid of you, and I stink, like _haven't showered for three weeks_ stink." Shawn tried to reason.

"Ew!" Several contestants cringed.

"Dude, when this challenge is finished, shower. Thoroughly. Several times," Topher said with a glare.

"And I don't think stinking is going to stop the bear," Jasmine pointed out. "Bears like to dig through garbage, after all."

Shawn looked between the cast and the bear, and uttered one word. The word had to be censored.

The starting bell rang, and that was the bear's signal to move. With a roar, it raised a gloved paw at Shawn.

The camera cut away as there was the sound of Shawn's signature scream rang out followed by several punches. The heroes winced when the camera cut back to the ring, where the bear delivered one final punch that sent Shawn spinning like a mini tornado until he collapsed on the floor. The conspiracy nut groaned as his eyes spun around, images of zombie heads chirping like birds and circling around his head. The bell rang, signaling the end of the match.

"That was fast. It's still two to one, and the Vultures are in the lead," the host updated.

Sammy pumped her fists. "Come on, Jasmine! You can do it!"

Jasmine walked over to the wheel. "Let's just see what I'm fighting _before_ we start cheering, alright?" Reaching out, she gave the wheel a spin.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"There's not much I can't fight. I'd like to see them try and find an opponent that I can't handle," Jasmine said confidently, pointing at herself with her thumb.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Jasmine, Chef rigged for the wheel to stop on the purple silhouette.

"Jasmine, looks like you get the Sasquatchinakwa!" Chris revealed.

The explorer blinked in surprise. "That's something I haven't fought before." She heard the stage whir, and looked over to see the hairy creature appear with boxing gloves ready.

"We were originally going to have Larry for you," Chris informed her, "but he was a _little_ too big for the ring to handle before it collapsed, so we settled for something more similar to your size."

Jasmine looked at the host, and then adjusted her hat as she frowned at Sasquatchinakwa. "Bring it on."

Sammy pumped her fists again. "Jasmine, Jasmine, she can win. I know she can because together we've been through thick and thin," she chanted.

Jasmine put on her gloves and entered the arena. When on the same level as Sasquatchinakwa, she was up to his chin, hat included. The bell dinged, and the match was on. Whenever one of the two fighters swung, the other dodged. There were times both swung, and their fists met in the space between.

"Whoa, she's good," Sugar whistled.

"Try punching faster! He can't counter your punches if you make them quicker than his," Sammy suggested.

Jasmine got hit in the stomach, and her eyes steeled with determination. Seemingly taking Sammy's advice, she sped up her swings. She managed to get a few blows in, and each one enraged Sasquatchinakwa.

"Come on, come on, knock her out," Alejandro muttered. "We need this win."

Sasquatchinakwa managed to hit Jasmine a second time, and aimed for a third. When he went in for it, Jasmine dodged by jumping up. The moment was caught in slow-motion, focusing first on Jasmine's determined frown before panning over to the sasquatch's shocked face. Jasmine reared an arm back, and slugged him directly in the face.

Sasquatchinakwa stumbled back, a dazed look on his face, and fell onto his back. Jasmine watched with tense preparedness, waiting for him to recover, but he laid still. The bell rang again, and the explorer allowed herself to smile.

"Jasmine scores another point for the Heroic Hamsters," updated Chris.

"Bangin'," Jasmine smiled, taking off the gloves and hopping out of the ring. Her teammates cheered, crowding around her.

"Well, well, the score is tied and there's only one person left that hasn't fought yet." Chris said.

Gwen sighed. "I know. I'm up." She began to walk over.

As she walked past Chris, the host explained, "If Gwen doesn't win the match, I'll let the Hamsters attempt to _steal_ the point by letting one of them go again except they get to pick their opponent from the wheel. And if they don't get the point either, the same chance will be given to the Vultures. After that, we'll spin randomly until someone wins."

Gwen spun the wheel, and it landed on the gray familiar silhouette. Unfortunately for Gwen, she recognized the shape.

"Courtney!" the loner shrieked in panic.

Courtney rose up into the ring, and pointed a glove at Chris. "I thought I made my point the first time. I am _not_ getting involved with the show again until my stress levels go back down!"

Chris began to chuckle. "Oh man, I've been looking forward to this match all day- er, I mean, how random!"

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"I can't fight Courtney," Gwen declared anxiously, "I won't!"

* * *

Gwen had been given her boxing gloves and forcibly placed in the arena. "No way," Gwen insisted.

"For once, I agree with her. You can't get me to throw a single punch," Courtney said.

Chris cast a skeptic eye at the girls. "Yeah, I kinda figured this would happen. So, as a bit of extra incentive…"

At the cue, Chef brought in the monitor.

"What's that for?" asked Courtney.

Wordlessly, Chris held up a remote. He turned on the TV, and a montage played of Duncan and Gwen's many kisses shared. One from them on the beach, one from them on the plane, one from them in the Area 51 storage, one from the yacht the first generation of contestants were on in last season's first episode, and a clip of them kissing on what looked like a website. Each kiss only appeared to anger Courtney further.

"Heeeey," Sierra spoke up, "that's a video from my Gwuncan blog!"

"That's right! The producers found it. _Awesome_ , huh?" Chris commented.

Courtney was fuming by the end of the montage. Gwen could see it clearly on her face, and tried to talk her down.

"Courtney, remember your stress," she tried to remind her.

"To heck with my stress levels!" Courtney snapped, raising a gloved fist and punching Gwen, who blocked the blow and then a second with her gloves. "That's for kissing my boyfriend!"

Whatever reluctance she had about fighting Courtney vanished at the first strike. Gwen threw a punch back. "That's for not accepting my apology even after I gave it a _hundred_ times!"

Topher called out, "Give it to her good, Gwen!"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I've been waiting for this confrontation between them for a while, and I got a front row seat for it, watching it play out live." Topher beamed. "That was _totally_ worth getting my butt kicked by Chef."

* * *

Two minutes later, both girls were roughed up. Each had bits of hair standing up on end, bruises on their cheeks and waists, and a black eye. The bell rang, signaling the time had run out.

"Okay, time's up!" Chris said from off-screen.

Glaring at each other, the girls simultaneously shouted, "We're not done!"

"I only came back on this show to make things right with you," Gwen told the control freak. Courtney took advantage of the moment to hit her in the eye again. "Ow!"

Courtney was about to raise her fist again, but faltered. "I-I know. I've been watching."

"You-you have?" Gwen asked.

The two girls collapsed down onto their knees.

"Even though my doctor said I shouldn't compete because of my stress, I watched to see what I was missing, and… I saw how sincere you were about wanting to apologize. I didn't see it before, but maybe I saw it this time because I was so _far away_ from you and figured you weren't just putting on an act."

"Oh. Well, now that you're here, I just want to say that I'm really sorry, again, for putting you through all of that."

"I accept your apology."

"So, friends?"

"Friends."

At long last, the girls shared a hug to a tender melody.

"Aw…" Sammy and Sierra cooed.

Chris sniffled and actually shed a tear. Wiping it away, he continued his hosting job. "Gwen managed to last in the ring for two minutes. That earns her a point, making the score three to two. Villains win again!"

The Villainous Vultures cheered, sharing high fives. A pan over to the Heroic Hamsters showed them groaning at their second loss in a row.

* * *

A fading transition cut the challenge's end to the bonfire ceremony. Sugar sat on the bottom bench of the peanut gallery next to Alejandro and Topher while Gwen and Shawn took the upper row. Meanwhile, the heroes sat in a single row on the stumps. Sierra sat on the far left end, next to Cody, Jasmine, and Sammy on the right end.

"This is really tough," Sammy whispered to Jasmine. "I don't know who to vote for."

"Go with your gut," Jasmine advised her.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"It has to be Cody or Sierra. Neither of them won their matches whereas Sammy and I succeeded with ours." The explorer shrugged her shoulders. "And I _might_ be biased since I'm closer friends with Sammy than with them."

* * *

"Okay," Chris called for the cast's attention, "before we send another player to the sewers, I have a wee announcement to make."

"The merge has arrived," Sugar hissed to Alejandro, who frowned. The camera panned to Alejandro's left, where Topher was watching them with pursed lips.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"I think Sugar doesn't understand how the game works," the wannabe host commented. "Why would Chris tell us _after_ the challenge when he usually does it right before the challenge? It makes no sense!" He spread his arms out to show how incredulous he found Sugar's idea.

* * *

"Tonight," Chris began to say, "the winners get to choose which player is eliminated from the losers' team." The heroes gasped together. "Hold that gasp. And the losers are the choosers of which winner goes to Boney Island. And, the teams are not merging. Now you may gasp."

That time, all the contestants inhaled sharply in a four way cut that showed all of them. Gwen and Shawn were in the upper left corner; Sugar, Alejandro, and Topher were in the upper right; Jasmine and Sammy were framed in the bottom right; and Cody and Sierra were in the bottom left corner.

The host smiled, clearly enjoying the drama his announcement had brought on. "Now, who's going home tonight?"

The Villainous Vultures whispered quickly for a few moments.

"Let me do it," Topher could be heard saying during the tail end of the conversation. "Show off my hosting skills." The others fell silent as Topher stood up from his seat. "By a vote of three to two, we have chosen… to eliminate…"

Cody and Sierra, still having a black eye from her fight with Blog and Post's mother, stared at the villains anxiously. Jasmine frowned at the villains, sending them a sharp look. Sammy's eyes widened.

The camera zoomed in on Topher's composed face. "…Sammy."

"What?" Sammy shrieked in shock, the camera zooming out to capture the reactions of her and her teammates. "Why me?"

Topher shrugged casually. "You're the one on your team that's gotten the furthest in the game. You were just the most logical threat to vote off."

Chris raised a finger to interject. "Before Sammy takes the Flush of Shame, which villain is going to take exile on Boney Island? Heroes?"

Almost immediately on the same page, Sierra, Cody, and Jasmine all pointed while saying, "Alejandro!"

The charmer raised an eyebrow at their decision.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"I am to take exile tonight? I suppose that is a fair trade considering I was one of the votes to eliminate Sammy," he admitted. "Her story of sibling rivalry is a _little_ too alike to my own. She had to leave before I could develop sympathy for her."

* * *

Everyone accompanied Chris and Sammy down to the Flush of Shame. Chef took Alejandro off to Boney Island in the Boat of Losers, and Sammy climbed into the giant toilet.

"Jasmine, Shawn, it's up to you guys," Sammy told her friends. "And please, make up soon. For me, okay?"

Jasmine gave her a nod of respect. "We'll try."

"Watch out for zombies in case they've infested the sewers," Shawn added, raising a finger. The explorer scowled in annoyance at him through the corner of her eye.

Chris prepared for the inevitable, and opened his umbrella. "Hold your breath," he teased while pressing the button on his remote.

"Aaaaaaaah!" Sammy screamed, going down the drain.

This time, everyone readied themselves for the backsplash, tensing their shoulders.

Once the backsplash was finished, Chris tossed the umbrella aside.

"Big sisters, former competitors, and surprising twists. Can we top it? You better believe we can. Next time on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

Sammy's scream echoed through the pipes until it spat her out onto a cold metal floor.

"Ow!" The cheerleader rubbed her sore backside. "A cushion or something would've been nice." She let her gaze drift upwards, and she began to look around. "Where am I?" Getting to her feet, she walked out of frame.

The next frame showed her walking up to a giant, metal, circular device that seemed to hold a blue wall. "What's this?" She reached out to touch it.

"Don't touch that!" A masculine voice called out in a sharp whisper as a pair of red-sleeved arms shot out from behind a shelf of assorted objects, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her back.

Sammy yelped as she once again disappeared from the camera's sight. The footage cut to around the other side of the shelf, where a slender arm in a blue sleeve had a hand over Sammy's mouth.

"Quiet," a warm, mature voice warned her. "We get caught in here, and we'll be in _huge_ trouble."

Sammy blinked when she noticed who was talking to her, and once the hand was removed, she pointed at the figures. "Hey, you're-?"

Bridgette and Tyler nodded once they pulled their hands and arms away from her.

"Yep, that's us. I'm Bridgette, and this is Tyler," introduced Bridgette.

"Hey, you can't just go around poking stuff in here," scolded Tyler, pointing a finger at the cheerleader. "All this stuff is crazy bonkers. You don't know whatever you touch is going to do. Take it from me."

Sammy grimaced. "Sorry, I didn't know." She looked around for a second time. "Where are we, anyway?"

"One of the storage units in Area 51," Bridgette answered.

"Area 5- oh em gee!" Sammy's eyes widened in horror. "What're we gonna do?"

Tyler lifted his hands calmly. "Don't worry. It'll be okay. Noah hacked the computers in this place so we could sneak in. He's awesome with computers like that."

Bridgette bobbed her head in agreement. "Definitely, but that's why we gotta move fast before-."

A siren began to blare, and the room started to flash red.

Bridgette sighed. "That happens."

There was the sound of boots clanking against the metal floors, frightening all three former players.

"We have to move. Let's go!" Tyler grabbed Sammy by the wrist, and hurried her away from the scene with Bridgette on their heels.

* * *

 **Sammy- 9th**

 **Duncan- 10th**

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Sammy wasn't meant to go any further than this. I recognize that she didn't have as much focus in All-Stars compared to Revenge of the Island, but that was exactly the point. After being in the spotlight for so long, it was time she take a step back and be in a more supportive role. Though, she did serve a purpose in acting as a mediator between Jasmine and Shawn, encouraging them to sort out their problems. Ultimately, the conflict was between Jasmine and Shawn, and it's important that even though Sammy is their friend, they need to reconcile without her present.**

 **Instead of using seven out of eight phobias on the wheel, the eighth was used since there weren't two contestants that went head-to-head this time. The opponents for Sierra, Alejandro, Sammy, and Gwen were obvious. Blog and Post needed to be returned to the Fun Zone, Alejandro and Sammy had their sibling rivalries, and Courtney, the whole reason Gwen came back, was needed to reconcile their plot. Unlike canon, I intend for the mended relationship to stick. I thought Alejandro and Sammy's similar situations were interesting to note in the narrative, and it helped serve a purpose later on when explaining why Alejandro voted Sammy off. Additionally, if you caught onto Alejandro's nightmare in the beginning, let's just say it was extra fuel to fire up his ultimate smackdown on Jose. I intended to include a joke where Topher asks Alejandro if he had a sister that he could date, but it sadly ended up not fitting in.**

 **The other four matches needed some figuring out. I needed a challenge for Jasmine since claustrophobia is difficult to physically represent, and then came to mind the Sasquatchinakwa. Consider it an early appearance compared to the final four challenge, which makes that appearance later on seem less random. Since you can't really box with a time bomb, Cody's fear needed to be something else. That's when I remembered him being mauled by the bear, and his later reactions to other bears. Also, I would like to clarify that I arranged for Shawn to fight Cody's bear before I remembered that happened in Fangren's version of All-Stars. Fang was Sugar's phobia, but since she wasn't fighting and Shawn's phobia, which would've just been a person in a zombie costume, would've been underwhelming, Cody got to fight Fang. Finally, Topher and his phobia. I had a tough time thinking of something or someone he could fight, and then I realized this was the perfect opportunity to continue his little conflict with Chef, which gave the cook a bit more to do in the season.**

 **Area 51 was selected for the episode's bonus clip location because there's a lot of creepy stuff in there, which is perfect for the phobia episode theme. Bridgette and Tyler were chosen to pick Sammy up because with Jasmine and Shawn still in the game, Sammy needed a warm presence (Bridgette), and Tyler served as a guide since he's been there before.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	21. TDAS Episode 8

**Critica7:** Yeah, her time was up. A very curious prediction.

 **SideshowJazz1:** It was a little bit of both. Cody was being Cody, and it was a take that to the canon's name for them. Oh, is that so? Maybe we should set the up on a date. Yeah, that's a problem with canon. There needs to be balance. They are her nieces, yes. Their mom mentioned her in Sammy's message from home, and I find the idea of them being related less ridiculous than Dave being Noah's cousin or some relationship twist like that.

 **Acosta perez jose ramiro:** Thank you. Yeah, that does seem to be a pattern with poor Sasquatchinakwa, doesn't it?

 **AnonBrowser:** Glad you understand why Sammy left. Good to know your reactions to the fights. As much as I hate to retcon things, if you've got a better excuse for Courtney not returning to compete that doesn't sound like a cop-out, I'd be willing to hear it. You might be right about Amy, but it just always being that way isn't very interesting, and since she's so petty, I figured I would try and give her an equally petty motive.

 **Phenomenal Ultra Instinct:** Thanks for that wonderful summary of last chapter.

 **That British Guy:** Thanks for reviewing!

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thanks as always.

 **EndeavorT:** Hopefully it will.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, Alejandro and Sammy have a similar story, but now wasn't the time to dig further into it. Yeah, it was important that things didn't snap back to the way they were at the beginning of the season with Courtney and Gwen. Thank you for understanding Sammy's elimination, and yes, once again she proves to her sister that she is not a loser.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Your reaction to that quote from Alejandro had me laughing for two straight minutes when I first read it, thanks for that. Yeah, at least she was able to make that kind of progress in the game.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** Yeah, I didn't want her to have too much of an extended stay this season, and it's best to eliminate an enemy you might feel sympathy for before it gets harder to eliminate them. Me too about Sierra, and yes, Courtney and Gwen making up is good.

 **Solarr-Eclipse:** Solarr, welcome back! I was wondering where you went. Glad to see you caught up. Yeah, putting the second generation on Pahkitew Island is going to be an interesting experiment when the time comes. Thank you, I really tried to clean up All-Stars and treat it properly.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** Thanks for the review! For the sake of spoilers, I cannot answer the first two questions, but I can answer the other two. I do despise Sundae Muddy Sundae because it takes everything Gwen and Courtney regained and throws it out the window, making the whole plot pointless. Maybe I would read a Cody/Gwen story, but I'm pretty particular about my ships so that's still a bit iffy.

With reviews answered, it's time to race some boats. And as a reminder, Cast Swap has a TVTropes page that is always looking to be improved, so if you have some things you want to add on that, feel free to do so. Now, let's race!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one and some shirts.

Episode 8- You Regatta Be Kidding Me

Instead of a shot of the island, the episode opened up with footage of the Wheel of Misfortune spinning.

"Last time on Total Drama," Chris began to narrate over the footage. "a brutal teens versus mutant fisticuffs free-for-all proved beyond doubt that these guys will do anything for a million bucks." Sierra was shown fighting Blog and Post's mother, followed by Shawn hesitating to fight the bear, and then Cody struggling with Fang. "Alejandro and Sammy stomped their siblings, and Gwen managed to make up with Courtney after a long two-minute match." The former two were shown defeating their brother and sister, respectively, succeeded by Gwen and Courtney sharing a hug while fallen onto their knees.

"The villains ruled victorious," Chris informed as a clip of the Vultures cheering was shown. The celebration was quickly transitioned to the surprise twist the host introduced during the ceremony. "But, in a last minute twist, the villains got to send a loser hero home, and the heroes got to send a winner villain to exile." The Vultures were shown discussing their decision, and followed up by the Hamsters selecting Alejandro for Boney Island. "So, it was 'see you tomorrow, Alejandro' and 'see you never, Sammy'." Sammy was seen disappearing down the Flush of Shame.

The replayed clips finally ended, and Chris was shown in present time. "Only eight players remain, and none of them are ready for how everything's about to change. Right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" When the camera pulled back from Chris, he was shown standing on top of the giant toilet.

(cue intro)

* * *

Blissfully, Gwen awoke in her bed at the spa hotel with ease, dressed in her nightgown.

"That was the best sleep I've had in a while. Maybe it's because I fixed all my problems." The loner observed, curling her legs up against her chest.

"That's all you're happy about?" Sugar came over, dressed in bed shorts and an oversized shirt. "We've won the last two challenges in a row. We're on a winning streak."

Gwen held up a finger. "Which could be ending soon. We're down to eight people, and unless Chris is waiting until we're down to six, the merge has to be coming up fast. Pretty soon, it'll be just one of us winning, and everyone else losing."

The pageant queen snorted, giving a dismissive wave of her hand. "Big whoop. I'm tired of playing with a team." She pointed at herself with her thumb. "The moment I get to do my own thing, I'm taking this game _by storm_."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"That'll be easier than taking candy from my little brother, especially since I got that invincibility thingy," she told the audience.

* * *

Topher knelt next to the wall of the boys' room, a cup pressed against his ear as he tried to listen into the next room over.

"Uh, what're you doing?" He heard Shawn ask behind him. The camera zoomed out to show Shawn standing nearby with a raised eyebrow. "Looks like something I'd be doing."

Topher shooed at him. "Would you shut up? I'm trying to see if I can hear Sugar."

"Why?"

"Because she has the invincibility statue, and if I can find out what she's doing with it, then I can find a way to make her use it," Topher reasoned.

Shawn's skepticism rose. "Sugar has it? How do you know?"

"I saw her find it when we were in the Fun Zone. Those goat eggs she brought back, the statue was in the same nest those came from."

"If that was the case, wouldn't Chris have made an announcement like he did last time?"

Topher rolled his eyes, taking the glass away from the wall as he stood up. "Maybe not. This _is_ an all-star season we're on. He probably didn't tell us to let us get caught off-guard." Handing the glass over to his teammate, he began to exit the room. "Take this down to the kitchen, would you?"

Shawn frowned at the cup, and then at his leaving roommate.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

The conspiracy nut held up both hands, lifting one up higher. "On the one hand, the chances of Sugar being the one to find the statue are slim." Switching the other, he continued to say, "On the _other_ , as much reason I have to not trust a thing Topher says, there's a chance he could be right."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"I feel so, so, so empty," the blogger said, holding empty hands. "I don't have my phone, and I lost my little rat babies. Without either of those things, I don't know what to do."

* * *

Sierra sat on the porch of the loser cabin, pouting until a hand held her poorly-fixed phone.

"Here. It's not my greatest workmanship, but it should work until you can replace it," Cody said.

"My phone," Sierra gasped, taking it from her geeky friend. "You fixed it!"

Sheepishly, Cody rubbed the back of his head. "It's nothing. The speaker doesn't work, so you can't make calls, but you should be able to text and post to your blog."

"Cody. You're a _lifesaver_!" She kissed him on the cheek unexpectedly, and dashed into the girls' room of the cabin. "I gotta backup my stuff before I lose it all for good."

Cody touched a surprised hand to the cheek Sierra had kissed.

"That was a nice thing you did for your friend," Jasmine was heard commenting. Cody looked over, and saw Jasmine walking over from the woods.

"She's one of my best friends, and her phone is important to her. Sort of like how my games are for me," Cody replied.

Jasmine sighed. "Or like how my friendship with Shawn is important to Sammy." She sat down on the porch Sierra had just left. "I don't know how I'm going to make up with Shawn. I want him to cut down on the zombie nonsense, but he wants me to treat it like a real concern."

Cody shrugged, not sure how to help. "I'm sure you two will find a way to work things out."

"Attention campers," Chris announced over the loudspeakers, getting the two heroes' attention. Sierra even poked her head out the girls' room. "Meet out in front of the spa hotel. It's time for a challenge!"

* * *

As the remaining contestants started to gather, Topher noticed that Alejandro was already back from exile.

"Hey, Al, how was Boney Island?" The wannabe host inquired, walking over to him.

Alejandro suppressed a shudder. "Please do not call me that name, and for your information, it was a simple matter. All it took was a _little_ bit of persuasion."

The show rippled into a flashback of Alejandro's night. In the woods, a bear roared.

"My, your breath is powerful," Alejandro complimented, making the bear stop to listen. "It is almost as compelling as your eyes." The bear got down on all fours, and the charmer held its head in his hand, giving it an affectionate stare that it returned. "The only eyes more beautiful than yours are those of that gopher." He gestured to a gopher nearby that had popped out of the ground. The gopher posed adorably for Alejandro, which upset the bear and made the latter chase the gopher away. No longer at risk, Alejandro gave himself a confident smile and continued his walk.

As the flashback ended and rippled back into the current show, Alejandro concluded, "Survival was easy. Also, I have a special way with animals."

Chris's arm grabbed Topher and pulled him out of the frame so the host himself could take his spot, holding his favored megaphone up to Alejandro's face. "Enough with the _self-promotion_ , Al!" Lowering his megaphone, he continued to say, "I have a big announcement- Today, the teams are being merged."

All eight campers gasped as one. Shawn stood on Chris's right with Jasmine, Cody, and Sierra while Sugar, Topher, Alejandro, and Gwen stood on Chris's left.

"That's right," Chris confirmed in a jolly tone, "from now on, challenges are for _individual winners only_ , and everyone is at risk of the not-so-royal flush!"

Sugar was the only one that was wearing a wicked grin.

At that moment, Chris's phone rang, and the host pulled it out of his pocket. Frowning, he told the campers, "I have to take this." Answering it, he walked away for some privacy. "Yeah, why does my credit card have major charges for pizza and movies?"

"So, together to the end like last time?" Cody offered to Sierra.

Sierra clapped her hands. "Oh, Cody… totally! We were so close too! This time, we'll win for sure."

Gwen walked over to the pair. "Mind if I join in? With the teams over, I'm _done_ being a villain."

The geek immediately beamed at her. "Sure. Of course, I never considered you a villain in the first place."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Finally, I get a chance to work with Gwen," he told the camera, pumping his fist. "Make no mistake, I'm not into Gwen anymore, but I do want to be her friend. Speaking of which, I still need to return that bra she gave me a few years ago," he said thoughtfully. "It was a cool thing to have when I was sixteen, but now that I'm nineteen, it's kinda creepy."

Shaking his head, he returned to his original thought. "Anyway, Gwen should've been on my team from day one. But because Chris decided to make her look like a bad guy for 'stealing' Courtney's boyfriend when he was the one that started the whole mess, that didn't happen. Now's the chance to make up for lost time, and between me, her, and Sierra, we have a good chance of making it to the final three."

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

The goth girl sighed contently. "I'm so glad to be finished with the team phase. Between managing to break up with Duncan, getting my diary back, making up with Courtney, and now this, I feel like things are finally looking up for me." Growing excited, she said, "Cody and Sierra aren't the first people I'd form an alliance with, but considering who's left, they're my best bet at getting to the end. And with a weird alliance with Shawn, and whatever I am with Sugar, I'm in a good position."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"Am I upset that Cody wants to work with Gwen?" The blogger asked rhetorically, knowing what the audience was probably thinking. "The fangirl me probably would have been, but the friend me is okay with it. Being part of the Total Drama family for almost two years has really changed how I see the others and their relationships." Taking out her phone, she began to type on it. "Now I need to come up with a name for my alliance. How does Coderrwen sound? Or maybe Gwesiody?" Frowning, she jabbed the keys of her phone. "Nah, those sound too much like ship names."

* * *

Shawn was shown standing next to Jasmine, and the awkwardness between them was so thick that the camera could pick up on it.

"So…" Shawn attempted small talk.

"Yeah, the merge…" Jasmine replied back.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"How am I supposed to make up with Jasmine like Sammy wants," Shawn wondered out loud. "She _totally_ dismissed my entire life philosophy and beliefs."

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

Jasmine looked off to the side, still feeling awkward. "Yeah," she drawled out, "reconciling with Shawn is not going to be a picnic in the outback."

* * *

Topher jabbed his thumb at himself, speaking to Alejandro in hushed tones. "I say we tell everyone. That way they'll know she has it, and follow our plan to flush it out without realizing it."

"And what if Sugar already has allies?" Alejandro argued back. "They could use us trying to expose her as ammunition to vote us off, and save her from using it until later on when they have the majority over her."

"So what? You just want us to sit back and let her hold onto it until it expires?"

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

Topher shrugged. "Does that statue even _have_ a usability clause?" He put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "I can't remember Chris saying that it had to be used by the final four or something." He smirked. "Good thing I already put my plan into action before Alejandro got back. Shawn will blab to Gwen, and whoever else he calls a friend, and Sugar will be forced to get rid of it to save herself."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Topher has a viable idea of letting everyone know and let them vote her off while we protect ourselves by voting off another target," he admitted, "but Sugar, as dumb as she may seem, might have a trick hidden somewhere in that absurd bun she has of her hair. She's definitely not as foolish as she appears if she's managed to get this far."

* * *

Sugar stood alone, observing everyone split off to converse. Standing alone, she took it all in with a wicked grin.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Dummies," she laughed, "by going to talk with each other right after Chris announces the merge, you're pretty much _spelling out_ your alliances. That makes you a target, and that's why I work all on my lonesome." She rubbed her hands together. "Now that I don't have to worry about some crummy team, I can _really_ do some damage to this here pageant."

* * *

Shawn, Jasmine, Sierra, and Cody all watched as Chris returned, still on his phone and a boat captain's hat on his head. "Mmhmm, yeah. Whatever, just cancel it and send me another one." Flipping his phone shut, he muttered under his breath, "He is _so getting it_ next time I see him…" He inhaled and exhaled a deep breath out of frame, calming himself. "Anywho…"

The camera cut from the contestants to Chris, who was now standing in front of the monitor, which displayed an overview image of Camp Wawanakwa. "This week's challenge is a regatta around the island."

"A re-what-a?" Jasmine inquired, raising a confused eyebrow.

"A regatta," Chris repeated, "it's a boat race."

"Then why not just say that instead?" Jasmine pointed out.

"Because I'm classy, hello," Chris retorted. He stepped out of the monitor's way, explaining, "In a throwback to season four's bell-ringing boat race, the first person to successfully circumnavigate the entire island wins immunity." Blue circles stamped with the final eight's faces followed a red line circling the island, starting from the Dock of Shame, going past the Thousand-Foot-High Cliff, around the island's back side, and returning to the dock. "And, a night in the spa hotel. Don't worry, Chef will keep things interesting by providing some 'obstacles' for you." Chris chuckled, making air quotes around obstacles. The contestants all grimaced at the idea of what Chef could potentially add to make the challenge tougher.

"Some of the boats are seaworthy," Chris went on, the monitor now showing seven different forms of water transportation. Among the transportation was the Boat of Losers, the powerboat and the inflatable raft from the bell-ringing race, the wooden raft from the eighth episode of the previous season, two more luxurious speedboats, and a fishing boat from World Tour's Newfoundland episode. "And some are sink-erriffic." To emphasize his point, the inflatable raft and one of the luxury speedboats sunk into the water on the screen. "And, they're all first come first serve, starting now!" He punctuated the last sentence by shouting through his megaphone.

The contestants took off running with shouts of cheering.

"Come on, Cody, let's go!" Sierra started jogging toward the dock.

"Right behind you," Cody agreed, hot on her heels.

Topher ran up beside the pair. "Hey there, fellow mergers, got a second?"

"Sorry, but we're not looking for an alliance at the moment," Cody immediately rejected.

"That's not what I want to talk about," corrected Topher. "Look, I saw Sugar find the invincibility statue. Since you guys are supposed to be heroes, I need you to spread the word so we can make Sugar play it."

Sierra asked, "Why should we listen to you?"

"You're a Total Drama superfan, aren't you? Wouldn't it be _great_ to experience exposing the statue live, instead of watching it happen after all is said and done?"

Sierra began to grin. "Ooh, he's got a good point."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"The addition of the invincibility statue to the game was a major twist to the game in its original debut," Sierra told the audience. "I've studied the ratings of each Total Drama episode, and the ratings spiked big time on the episode it was used last season. Having firsthand knowledge about that thing would be incredible for my blog on the series as a whole."

* * *

"And Alejandro takes the lead, leaving his friend behind. That's cold, brah." Alejandro was the first to reach the Dock of Shame, hopping into the speedboat with the red bottom. He started it up, cruising away to start the race.

Jasmine and Shawn were next to claim a boat, both of them getting into the speedboat with the purple bottom.

"It looks like Jasmine and Shawn are teaming up, despite trouble in their friendship paradise. Interesting," Chris noted, flying above the action with his jetpack.

Somehow, Sugar was the next to arrive at the boats. She gleefully punched the dashboard of the remaining powerboat, making it spark ominously, then moved onto the fishing boat. Reaching down in the boat, she pulled up an anchor and dropped it roughly, making a hole in the boat itself. After that, she deflated the inflatable raft by popping open the air valve. Finally, she entered the cab of the Boat of Losers, starting it up and driving it away.

"No fair," Sierra pouted when she, Cody, Gwen, and Topher arrived on the dock. "We were going to use that one."

"And Al left me behind, just great," Topher complained, folding his arms over his chest.

Gwen pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. "Looks like we'll have to use the powerboat." The loner jumped into the boat's driver seat to try and start it up, only for it to sink when she did so.

Cody sighed. "I guess that leaves us with the raft."

All four of them stepped onto the wooden raft, and Cody and Sierra were quick to pick up the paddles. Their raft also had a coil of rope.

"Here's the deal, we work together through the race, and if none of us win immunity, we promise not to vote each other off. Agreed?" Gwen proposed.

"Yeah, sure. At least until I catch up to Al," Topher urged, getting on his knees to paddle with his hand. Cody and Sierra started paddling with the oars while Gwen joined in paddling the same way as the wannabe host.

"And the riff-raff ride the rickety raft," Chris alliterated, watching the odd group of four start their journey around the island. He chuckled to himself, "I'm hilarious."

* * *

Ahead of the pack, Alejandro leisurely enjoyed his lead until he heard his boat sputter.

"Ay, no!" The charmer cried when his boat stalled to a halt. "Come now, beautiful engine… start for Alejandro."

While he struggled to make his boat turn on again, Sugar passed him with the Boat of Losers.

"And Sugar takes the lead," Chris updated as he flew over Alejandro's head, "but will she keep it all the way through Coconut Alley?"

The pageant queen poked her head out of the cab. "The heck is Coconut Alley?" A coconut soon bopped her on her head. "Ow, what the hay?" Rubbing her head, she glared up above.

Chef was flying in a hot air balloon, tossing down baskets full of coconuts.

Wisely, Sugar ducked back into the cab as coconuts rained down on her deck. Once the wave had passed, she stuck her head out once more. "Hah! _You missed_ , sucker!" Another coconut bonked her in the head for her troubles, making her drop to the floor in stunned pain.

* * *

"If you had a more _open mind_ , you'd listen to what I have to say," Shawn argued, sitting in the passenger seat.

Jasmine, the driver, retorted, "And if you weren't so _obsessive_ …"

"Jasmine and Shawn reach Coconut Alley," announced Chris.

Chuckling, Chef dumped a basket of coconuts down their way.

As the pair drove along, they heard a whistling noise, causing them to look up. "What's that noise?" Shawn wondered.

Several coconuts hit the boat, including the riders.

Recoiling from the pain, Shawn grit his teeth, prepared to throw a fist at Chef in protest. Next to him, Jasmine was dazed, rocking back and forth from the impact. "Hey! That was totally uncalled for- Jasmine!"

The outback explorer nearly fell out of the boat completely, but Shawn caught her by her foot in the nick of time. Unfortunately, not all of her was saved because her hat was swept off her head by the wind. With all his strength, Shawn pulled her back into their ride.

Jasmine sat back in her seat, staring at the conspiracy nut with stunned admiration. "You… saved me."

Sheepishly, Shawn rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze. "Well, you'd do the same for me. At least, I think you would."

She smiled at him warmly. "I definitely would." She frowned, looking down at her feet for a moment before reaffirming her gaze. "Look, I'm sorry that I dismissed your zombie thing. It's just, you keep bringing them up even in the middle of a challenge where they don't apply, and I doubt that we're ever going to deal with one out here."

"And I'm sorry that I yelled at you," Shawn apologized as the camera zoomed in on the pair. "Zombies are the only thing I really know a lot about, and it didn't get me a whole lot of friends before the show. If I talk about them less and you be more open to my ideas about stuff, can we be friends again?"

"Sure." The two survivalists hugged as a tender melody played.

Chris watched the reconciliation from the sky, and was less than impressed. "Boring! Better up the ante, Chef!"

In response, Chef held up a lit stick of dynamite. "It's times like these where I really love this job," the cook commented, dropping the explosive without ceremony.

The dynamite landed on top of the survivalists' motor, and exploded upon contact, evoking yelps of surprise from them.

"Oh great!" Shawn griped upon seeing the wrecked motor.

* * *

Back at the beginning of Coconut Alley, Alejandro managed to get his working again with a puff of smoke.

"Thanks for leaving me behind," Topher sarcastically greeted him as the group on the wooden raft caught up to him. The group paddled the raft close enough to Alejandro's boat that the wannabe host dove in. "Great way to start the merge, man."

"Just get onboard and hang onto something, we're about to go _muy rapido_!" Alejandro shot back, starting the boat again as he briefly lapsed into Spanish. The pair sped off, splashing the trio remaining on the raft with a wave in their wake. Gwen, Cody, and Sierra all groaned as they got soaked.

"If only we had some kind of motor," Gwen mused.

"Um duh," Sierra spoke up, "but the only kind we'd able to get is- a live one! Look!" The blogger pointed behind their raft, directing her alliance's attention to a dorsal fin sticking out of the water. "It's Fang!"

"Okay," Cody said slowly, not understanding where she was going with this idea. "How does he help us?"

Sierra lifted a confident finger. "Just watch. Hey, fish face!" Gripping her oar, she leaped off the raft.

"Sierra!" Gwen and Cody shouted in unison.

Up in the sky, Chris held himself steady. "So far, everyone's still alive, but how likely is that to continue? Find out when we return with more Total Drama All-Stars!" The show faded to black for commercial.

* * *

When the show faded back in, Fang was shown swimming along until he heard Sierra's roar. He peered out of the water only to get a purple-haired blogger wielding an oar to his face. She tackled him down underwater, leaving a trail of bubbles on the surface.

After a few moments, they breached with Sierra clinging to a bruised Fang's back. "Listen here, you Cody hurter. You hate Sugar, right? She's in the lead, and you owe us one for hurting Cody the other day. Help us stop Sugar, and I'll get the butler at the spa hotel to reward you with a giant plate of bacon, got it?"

Fang thought for a moment, and then scowled at her.

"I'm taking that as a yes," she said. "Cody, Gwen, make a harness!"

"I'm on it!" Cody grabbed the rope that was on their raft, and began fashioning a loop of it.

Fang swam past the raft, and Cody threw the completed harness around the mutated shark's neck while Sierra got back on the raft.

"Hurry, everybody else is _far ahead_ of us by now," Gwen pointed out.

The shark began to pull them across the water at a much faster speed than they were original going.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"It's been so long since I've been on a team with Sierra that I've forgotten as crazy as Sierra's plans are, they usually end up working out," Gwen said, a small smile on her lips as the challenge seemed to be looking up for her alliance.

* * *

As Jasmine tried to start up the boat again, Shawn inspected their motor after the explosion.

"I hate to say it, but this thing is totally busted," Shawn stated with a disappointed frown.

"This just in," the pair looked up to see Alejandro and Topher drive by with the latter narrating, "Alejandro and Topher are rising up the ranks."

Soon after, Fang pulled the raft riders past as well. Cody could be heard chanting, "Go, Fang, go!"

The survivalists groaned that two boats full of people had passed them. In the background, Chris flew by with an update. "This just in," he said, not realizing Topher had used those words moments prior, "Sugar still has the lead, and thanks to the riff-rafters' new engine, guess who's last."

Jasmine looked back at Shawn. "Last place? That's an angry koala to the face!"

"Blame Chef," Shawn retorted, inspecting the engine again. "If it weren't for him, we'd still be moving."

Annoyed, Jasmine dug at the bottom of the boat, and then ran up to the boat's nose with an oar in hand, starting to paddle the boat herself to make it move.

* * *

At the front of the race, Sugar chugged onward in the Boat of Losers, but it appeared that Alejandro and Topher were gaining on her.

"Left!" Topher called out, and Alejandro made the boat swerve left of a dynamite stick that Chef dropped. "Right!" A second stick fell past them, exploding when it hit the water and sending water flying everywhere. "More right!"

Alejandro chuckled when they dodged their third explosive. "Excelente, we're catching up to that _estupida vaca_."

"And unless we can pass her, it won't be enough," said Topher. A second passed, and both of his eyebrows shot up as he pointed a finger at something offscreen. "Whoa, isn't that _the_ Playa des Losers?"

The camera cut to a brief shot of a familiar beige mansion on a cliff by the beach. It had a staircase descending down the cliff, and deck chairs sat on the beach while a pair of sailboats were tethered to the dock that was much neater than the Dock of Shame.

"It appears to be so," Alejandro replied conversationally as he drove. "It's a marvel to see it still in good condition considering how close it is to camp. With all the mutation infesting the camp last year, I would've expected this place to be overrun as well."

Chris flew alongside their boat with his jetpack. "Not if I have anything to say about it. Sure, I'd let the cabins and the mess hall get trashed, but not this place."

The charmer rolled his eyes at Chris's remark. "Whatever, we can take a closer look at it later. Right now, we need to stop Sugar from winning this race."

"Couldn't agree more. Pedal to the meddle, Al!" Topher agreed, pumping a fist.

"Call me 'Al' one more time, and I _will_ shove you out of this boat, Topher!"

"Okay, okay, geez. Touchy…" The wannabe host grumbled as the pair continued on their way.

After they left the area, the raft riders soon arrived.

Sierra clapped her hands giddily. "Yay! We're not in last place anymore."

"Yeah, but we're not that _close_ to first either," Gwen pointed out as she held Fang's tether.

Cody eagerly tapped Gwen's shoulder. "Gwen, look! It's the Playa!"

The loner looked in the direction the geek pointed out, and smiled. "Oh yeah. I remember that. I was wondering what happened to that place. We didn't use it after the first season."

"That's because it was only a one-season deal," Chris told them, flying over to them. "We couldn't find a place to keep you kids that first season, so my summer cottage became your loser resort until we locked in your new place during the second season. You're welcome."

"Wait," Cody lifted a hand in protest. "You call the Playa a _cottage_?"

"Yeah, what else would it be?"

"I don't know, a _mansion_ maybe," Gwen quipped.

The host frowned at them. "No, it's a cottage."

"Mansion," Gwen countered.

"Cot-tage," Chris emphasized in annoyance. "Look, I gotta check on the leaders. This convo is over, capiche?" His final word on the subject said, he flew away.

Gwen muttered to Cody, "It's totally a mansion."

"Oh yeah," Cody confirmed with a nod of his head.

Sierra had been quiet since they saw the place, and she silently stared at the former loser residence until she blurted out, "I gotta blog about this!"

Cody and Gwen turned to her, startled. "Sierra," Cody began to say, only to be cut off by a splash.

The two original players watched in shock as Sierra abandoned the raft, swimming toward the Playa with one hand holding her phone above her head.

"Keep going! I'll catch up," Sierra shouted without looking back.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

He shrugged casually to start his confession. "To be honest, I pretty much saw that coming." Then, he began to tap his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if Chris has the place locked up enough to keep her out."

* * *

Sugar had been driving along when she saw the tiny fish with big teeth jumping out of the water and snapping their jaws.

"Ooh, piranhas!" The pageant queen left the wheel, and went out to the deck, picking up a bucket and holding it out over the water. A few of the jumping fish landed in her bucket, making the girl lick her lips. "I've never eaten piranha before. I bet they taste real good."

A brief zoom-in showed a boat nose ramming into the back of the Boat of Losers.

"Whoa," Sugar yelped, almost losing her balance but regaining it before she could fall over.

A zoom-out revealed Alejandro and Topher had caught up to her like they intended.

"I hope you enjoy those, because they're the _only_ meal you'll get after we beat you in this race," Alejandro taunted.

Topher laughed in the passenger seat. "You tell her!"

Sugar scowled fiercely, dropping her bucket of fish to the deck. "You two? Can't you dog someone else? I keep telling people I ain't interested in no alliance."

"As if we'd align with the likes of you," Alejandro spat.

Finding nothing to retort, Sugar eyed the reel hitched to the back of the boat.

The two boys in the speedboat simultaneously widened their eyes and ducked quick enough to dodge the reel that flew over their heads.

"Dang it, I missed!" Sugar snapped her fingers in aggravation, the splintered post where the reel was beside her.

After he and Topher raised their heads again, Alejandro glared. "So, we've escalated to that, have we? Topher, take the controls." Stepping on the controls, the charmer started climbing over the windshield.

"Wha-what're you doing?" Topher stammered, grabbing the controls quickly after Alejandro released them.

"Making sure she doesn't win," he said with conviction. Alejandro ran up the nose of the boat, and jumped onto Sugar's vehicle. Almost immediately, he was hit in the head by a bucket full of piranhas. "Agh!"

Sugar smirked boastfully. "Now that's more delicious than actually _eating_ the darn things."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Sugar certainly has a lot of fighting spirit from those pageants she does," the charmer admitted. "But, it's not the first time I've witnessed such spirit. My cousin Malia has exemplified more energy than that in Lady South America pageants."

* * *

In last place, Jasmine and Shawn were still moving slowly. On the boat's nose, Jasmine sat, trying to paddle to the finish line while Shawn was at the back by the motor, fiddling with its inner workings.

"It's going to take us until _nightfall_ to reach the finish line at this rate," Jasmine complained, raising her oar out of the water in frustration.

"Not necessarily," said Shawn as he adjusted the remaining parts of the engine. "If I can just connect this little thing here… there we go!" Quickly, he pulled his hands away as the engine sputtered to life and the boat began to move faster than it had been when Jasmine was rowing.

Jasmine beamed at him. "You fixed it! It might be a long shot, but we may still have a chance."

Shawn got into the driver's seat and sped them up. "Next stop, checkered flag!"

* * *

A flash cut to Chris and Chef standing on the Dock of Shame, the buoy bearing the checkered flag that Shawn had just mentioned in the water before them.

"All the boats are in the final stretch," Chris announced. "Who's going to win tonight's immunity?"

Topher continued to drive his and Alejandro's speedboat behind the Boat of Losers. A thought occurred to him, and with a determined frown, he pulled back on a throttle, making the speedboat slow down and create a gap of water between itself and the Boat of Losers. After a quick turn of the controls, he sped the boat up again, and cruised past Sugar's ride.

On the Boat of Losers' deck, Alejandro kept ducking out of arms' reach, frustrating Sugar.

"Stay still so I can throw you overboard!" Sugar demanded.

"I'd rather not, since it's in my best interest to make sure _you_ go overboard tonight!" Alejandro shot back. He managed to slip past Sugar, and enter the cabin. Reaching the controls, he pulled back on a throttle similar to the one Topher had grabbed, and spun the wheel.

"Hey, you can't do that! This is my ride!" Sugar fumed, entering the cab and immediately slamming into the wall due to Alejandro's sharp turning.

"Consider this a mutiny," retorted Alejandro. After she regained her balance, Sugar tried to rush at him, but he raised an arm back and held her back with his hand to her face. While most people would strain to try and reach the other's face, Sugar chose to grab the arm restraining her and bend it in a painful manner. "Ay!"

Gwen and Cody blinked as the Boat of Losers drove past them going back the way they had come.

"Uh, wasn't that Sugar's boat?" Cody asked his fellow raft rider.

Gwen shrugged the best she could while helping Cody keep Fang's harness under control. "She's strange like that. You get used to it."

* * *

Topher's boat began to sputter, and the wannabe host suddenly found his ride slowing down. "No, not now!"

"Oh, Topher's chances of winning have stalled, just like his motor," Chris zinged when Topher's boat stopped right before the finish line.

Topher threw his fists to the sky. "So not fair! I'm so close!"

* * *

Back on the Boat of Losers, Alejandro yelped as his arm was bent further.

"Say uncle, say it!" Sugar growled.

"Fine, tio! Tio!" Alejandro pleaded.

"That's not uncle!"

"It is in Spanish. Believe me."

Rolling her eyes, Sugar replied, "If you say so." She yanked him away from the wheel, and took over control.

Alejandro hit the wall next to the door frame, rubbing his sore head with one hand.

"There's the finish line," Gwen pointed out. "It looks like Topher's stuck."

"And Sugar is _behind_ us. We might actually make it," Cody remarked, looking back. "Huh? Who's tha-?"

"Scuse us, coming through," Jasmine greeted as she and Shawn zipped past the shark-powered raft, stunning Fang that he had been overtaken.

"See you guys at the bonfire," Shawn said in passing.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"I really thought we were going to end this race in last," the conspiracy nut stated before smirking. "Goes to show how the many areas of apocalypse preparation can help in a different setting. Like, hotwiring a boat to win a race after the motor partially explodes."

* * *

"Start, man, start," Topher muttered under his breath as he repeatedly tried to start his speedboat again. His frustration with his seaworthy vehicle grew due to the host and his co-host laughing on the dock nearby at his constant failures.

Jasmine, who was standing in her and Shawn's speedboat while the latter drove, looked over their shattered windshield. "Hey, what's Topher up to?"

"Looks like he has the same problems that we had a few miles back," Shawn mused. "Tough luck for him."

Honk! Honk!

The survivalist pair looked behind them, and their eyes widened.

"We're about to have _tough luck_ ourselves," commented Jasmine as Sugar's boat came up beside theirs.

Close behind them, Fang was giving everything he had to keep up with the motorized transports.

"Keep going, Fang, just a little more," Gwen encouraged.

"And we'll upgrade your bacon to a whole meat buffet," Cody offered, and Fang apparently agreed as he tried to go a bit faster.

Topher tried to start his boat for the umpteenth time, barring his teeth as he did so.

Jasmine and Shawn gave a cheer as they pulled ahead of Sugar.

"Work, dang it!" Topher shouted, turning the key over again.

As Jasmine and Shawn approached, Topher tried a desperate tactic, and jumped over the windshield as Alejandro had done before. He ran up the boat's nose, and dove off of it, his head passing the finish line right as the nose of Jasmine and Shawn's boat did.

"Ooh, Topher wins by a nose!" Chris declared. "And Jasmine and Shawn take second place. Not that it matters, Sugar and Alejandro take third." As Sugar's boat passed the buoy, the pageant queen was seen scowling through the window while Alejandro stood on the back deck with his arms crossed.

"And, Gwen and Cody came in last. You guys seriously thought that a _shark_ could beat a boat motor?"

Gwen smirked. "You may be laughing now, but it's _your_ production crew that has to pay up a whole cabin's worth of meat for Fang. He deserves it after all the effort he put into this." She gave the shark an affectionate pat on the head as Cody released Fang from his harness.

Playfully, Cody snickered, "Leave it to you to be friendly with a shark."

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"My interests have never been that mainstream. When I was little, I had a doll that I always took to daycare with the head popped off. I thought it was cool, but the other kids were so scared of me because of that." Gwen chuckled at the memory. "Good times."

* * *

The seven contestants gathered on the dock, and Chris immediately realized something was off.

"Wait a minute, where's Sierra?" The host asked.

Cody and Gwen shared a glance.

* * *

A flash cut showed a far shot of the former Playa des Losers, and the camera zoomed in on it while Sierra's trademark giggle could be heard.

"The pool bar where Noah liked to read!" The blogger exclaimed when she appeared on-screen, taking a picture of the juice bar in the pool where several contestants from the first season were known to hang out. "The hot tub where Bridgette and Geoff made out!" She snapped a picture of a raised hot tub.

She let out a sharp gasp when she was shown inside the former resort. "Chris's kitchen!" The camera pulled back to show the purple-haired girl standing in a sleek-looking kitchen with a silver color. Letting out another round of giggles, she ran through a hallway, passing a painted portrait of the host. She doubled back, and stared at it. "Wow, Chris _really_ likes art of himself," she said, turning to face the camera and pointing to the artwork with her thumb. Sierra then got a curious look on her face. "Ooh, I wonder what Chris's _bedroom_ looks like." With that question in mind, she sprinted off down the hall, laughing all the while.

* * *

"She couldn't really have any privacy on the raft, so she ditched to take a whiz," Gwen lied with Cody nodding in support.

Chris shrugged. "Whatever. Her loss is her loss. As winner of today's challenge, Topher gets immunity and a night at the spa hotel, and he can bring someone along with him."

Topher was so proud of his victory that he was almost taken aback when the others crowded him in an effort to get him to pick a plus-one.

"Well," he said after a moment to collect his thoughts, "if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to catch up with Alejandro, so I'll pick Cody. Sorry Gwen, I could only pick one of you."

"That's fine," Gwen agreed, nudging Cody in the shoulder. "Just make sure Fang gets his meat. I don't want him coming after me because we broke a promise."

"Sure thing," Cody said.

"Alright, as for the rest of you, hit the voting booth," Chris directed, and the contestants dispersed to prepare for the evening.

Before Alejandro could leave, Sugar jabbed her finger on his chest. "You sabotaged my chance to win today. I'm warning you, prepare to be sabotaged like never before. You mess with a queen like me, and I'll make sure you never have little _princes and princesses_ the rest of your life." Without waiting for a response, she stomped away.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"I'm going to win next time, and when I do, that boy's going down that drain one way or another," Sugar vowed.

* * *

Night hung over the island, and the eight campers, Sierra having returned from her side trip, sat on the stump seats. While the peanut gallery was still there, it would go unused for the remainder of the season due to everyone but the challenge winner being on the chopping block.

"Good news. As a reward for making it to the merge, there will be no Boney Island for any of you tonight," Chris declared, his tone clearly angry. The campers cheered at the thought of no exile.

"What's the matter, Chris? Is the hosting job getting to be too much and making you cranky," Topher teased.

"Shut up, Topher," Chris snapped, putting his hands on his hips. "I can easily revoke your immunity and send you off this island tonight. I'm mad because a _certain punk_ I'm not naming apparently stole my wallet before he left and has been using my credit cards. Thanks to him, I have to get new ones. And _you_!" He pointed at Sierra, who blinked in confusion at him. "Sneaking into my cottage and taking pictures! I should've confiscated your phone on day one, but figured you'd go _insane_ without it!"

Sierra held up her hands in defense. "I just wanted to get exclusive pictures of Playa des Losers for my blogs."

"And that cottage you're talking about is totally a mansion," Shawn remarked, raising a finger to interject.

"It's a cottage, and that's the final word about it," Chris stated sternly. Taking a deep breath, he put on a smile. "Okay, time to read the votes you cast earlier this evening," the host said.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"She'll be safe this round, but next one, she had better watch her disastrous hair, or she may just be the next one flushed," warned the charmer.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"That boy's got some nerve to do what he did today, but he's just lucky that I got something else to take care of tonight."

* * *

"Interesting," Chris murmured as he tallied the votes then picked up the plate of marshmallows. "The following players are safe… Topher, obviously!"

Topher smugly accepted his marshmallow, tossing it in his mouth.

"Shawn!"

The conspiracy nut caught his marshmallow, and cast a look at Jasmine.

"Jasmine!"

The explorer received her marshmallow, and shared a happy look with Shawn, both assured that they would remain in the game.

"Alejandro!"

Alejandro took the marshmallow with a frown. It was apparent he wouldn't celebrate until his goal was accomplished.

"Cody!"

The geek pumped a fist discreetly before catching his treat.

"Gwen, Sierra, Sugar, all of you have received votes," Chris said, making Gwen and Sierra's eyes widen with shock while Sugar scowled at everyone. "Tied at one vote each… Gwen, Sierra, you both are safe. Which means Sugar is taking the trip to Flushville!" He made to throw the final two marshmallows at their intended recipients, but before he could, Sugar stood up.

"No, I ain't! Cause I got that statue thingy," Sugar announced, digging into the pocket of her jeans and pulling out the carving.

All but Alejandro and Topher gasped.

For a moment, Chris blinked with stunned surprise, and then a wide smile formed on his face. "Sweet! I was hoping that would come up soon. I guess that means one of these marshmallows is yours." Taking one of the white treats off the plate, he tossed it to her. "And that leaves two."

"So, what happens now since you said we tied votes?" Sierra asked.

"If it's another tiebreaker challenge involving something I'm allergic to, I _might_ just ask for Courtney's help to sue you," Gwen spoke up, folding her arms over her chest.

"If we hadn't experienced a situation like this last season, I might've had you guys do a revote, but since we did, I made sure to plan for a case like this." Turning his head to the side, Chris called out, "Chef, bring it in!"

The cook brought over a kiddie pool filled with water along with a small bag.

"In a nod to our challenge today, Gwen and Sierra have to get their toy boats to the other side of this little pool," Chris explained, taking the bag while Chef set down the pool. The host opened the bag and pulled out a little toy boat with a sail that was yellow and another toy boat that was red. In addition, he also removed two toy fans. "Using these little fans. The first person to get their boat to the other side stays while other one takes the flush. Ready?"

Gwen and Sierra glanced at each other.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"I just made an alliance with Sierra today, and now I have to do _another_ freaking tiebreaker?" The loner girl griped, putting her face in her hands. "I swear my life sucks sometimes."

* * *

(Confessional- Sierra)

"Before, I would've gladly taken Gwen on in a tiebreaker so I could get more time with Cody, but now, Gwen is one of the last people that I want to face in one of these."

* * *

Gwen and Sierra stood next to the pool, their boats in one end and a small checkered banner hanging over the other end.

"On you marks, get set, go!" Chris exclaimed, waving one arm down.

The two girls turned on their small fans and started blowing wind into the sails.

"Go, Gwen!" "You can do it, Sierra!" "Hurry!"

The little boats floated across the little pool, one inching further ahead than the other.

Gwen was shown moving her fan with a wide-eyed expression on her face before the camera panned over to Sierra biting her lip as she made similar motions.

"Who's going to win the Kiddie Pool Regatta? Who's going to sink like their ship?" Chris commented as he and Chef watched with keen interest.

The other contestants watched with varying looks of amusement or anxiousness.

The boat in second place almost caught up with the one in first as they neared the checkered area.

"It's…" Chris watched closer, and several contestants were shown rising to their feet in anticipation.

Both boats crossed the finish line, but the first one to do it was…

…

…

…

…The red one.

"Gwen wins! She stays another day while Sierra is taking the Flush of Shame!" Chris announced.

Gwen sighed with relief as Sierra dropped to her knees, despairingly crying, "No!"

"Sierra, time to go."

Cody went over to Sierra, who was still on her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Sierra?"

The blogger hiccupped slightly. "I don't want to go…"

He rested a hand on her shoulder. "This is how the game works. Don't worry, we'll see each other again at the finale."

"But, I can't leave yet," Sierra cried, looking at everyone. "I love this place _so much_. I thought if I would have to get eliminated, it wouldn't be for a while longer. This place has meant so much to me ever since the show started three years ago, and even though I wasn't actually here, I still felt like I _belonged_." She sniffled, wiping her nose with her arm. "Sure the cabins are cruddy, the food is disgusting, and the animals are all kinds of vicious, but watching you guys have fun and make memories made camp feel like home away from home. To leave it all just like that, it's really hard."

Cody helped her up to her feet, looking at her even though he was a full head shorter than her. "And we get that, but you know what? It's not the place that makes it special, it's the _people_. Aside from the big cash prize, the only reason we all put up with the place was the friends we made."

Gwen walked over, smiling. "The squirt has a point. If I hadn't met the few sane people I did, I wouldn't have stuck around."

The geek sent a grateful look to Gwen before returning his attention to Sierra. "You can do it. Go home, and support us just like you always have been. We'll see you at the end, okay?"

Sierra gave him a small smile in understanding. "Okay."

At that point, Chef grabbed her by the arm and started hauling her down to the dock, the farewell having gone on long enough. Gwen, Jasmine, Shawn, and Cody followed, leaving the former original Vultures still on the stumps. Alejandro and Topher stared in stunned bafflement while Sugar played with one of her toes.

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"Dang it! Sierra wasn't supposed to be the fall guy. If she's really that willing to abandon a challenge like she did, she would've made someone easy to win against," Topher said. "But, if she was tied with Gwen, then who voted for Sierra?"

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Gwen, that purple-haired chick, and that short guy were the biggest alliance I saw when the merge started," Sugar explained. "I could easily take the small fry in a fight, and Gwen has a reason to trust me, so that left Purple Phone Freak." She frowned. "Now I don't have that statue protecting me anymore. I really got to do some work to keep myself s _afe_ until the end."

* * *

Sierra was in the giant toilet with Chris standing by, ready to send her away. Those who came down to see her off stood back, trying to avoid the splash zone.

"Take care, alright?" Cody said.

"And _please_ take down that Gwuncan blog of yours when you get home?" Gwen pleaded.

Chris pressed the button on his remote, and Sierra was sent spinning down the drain with a scream.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"The last time Sierra was eliminated, she didn't leave since we were in the middle of nowhere. She stayed by my side, but this time she actually left." Cody frowned, looking down at his hands clasped in his lap. "It's strange, but I'm not going to let that hold me back. I made it to the final three once, and I can do it again and take it a step forward, just like Heather."

* * *

Instead of doing his outro on the Dock of Shame, Chris elected to do it outside the confessional Cody was currently using. "Eight players down, seven to go. Who's next to take a paddle in the big porcelain pond?" Lowering his voice to a whisper, he jabbed a thumb at the confessional. "My money's on Cody."

Cody poked his head out of the outhouse, yelling, "Hey, I heard that!" He then retreated back inside without waiting for any sort of response.

"Find out for sure," Chris continued, "when we return with another all new episode of Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

Sierra was spat out of a pipe with a splash of water drenching her in the process. She landed in a dark, stone room with what looked like a wall of hieroglyphs behind her.

"Owie," Sierra yelped upon impact. Looking around, she let out a curious coo. "Am I back in Egypt? I gotta get a picture of this." She pulled out her phone, only to find it was sufficiently drenched and therefore unusable. "Oh no, not again!"

"I think I heard her over there!" A female voice called out, making Sierra look up from her device.

"Ooh, yeah! I see her! Hi, Sierra!" A second feminine voice greeted.

Sierra gasped with glee. "Katie, Sadie, you're here too?"

The camera zoomed out to show the identically dressed best friends entering the scene.

"Yeah, we're here to pick you up," Sadie explained.

"You and the others were, like, so lucky to travel all over the world on season three. This was our first time flying out of Canada since Hawaii, and it rocked," Katie added. "Especially the plane snacks, I don't know why people keep saying they're horrible."

"Me neither. And the best part is, we get to have those same snacks on the flight back. I love love love traveling. Hey, do you think the show will do another traveling season that we could be in?" Sadie rambled.

"I hope it does," Katie replied. "Ooh, or maybe we could try out for one of those _other_ traveling shows."

Sadie gasped. "Good idea."

"Um, guys," Sierra interrupted, getting the two girls to look at her. "You're supposed to get me home."

"Oh right," the thinner BFFFL remembered, "come on. Let's get out of here. It's like so dusty in here it's not even funny. This way."

Katie began to lead the trio out of the room.

"Just be careful where you step," Sierra advised as they started moving. "These pyramids have traps built in."

Unbeknownst to her, Sadie unwittingly stepped on a tile that sunk in and made a rumbling noise.

"Sadie!" Katie cried out.

"It's not my fault! Sierra didn't, like, _warn_ me fast enough," Sadie snapped back.

Sierra shushed them. "Wait, what's that noise?"

The noise that followed sounded like a bunch of chirping crickets, but little black bugs began to crawl out of little hidey-holes.

"Scarabs! Run!" Sierra screeched.

All three girls ran off screaming in hopes of not becoming scarab food. Once they were out of frame, scarabs crawled over the camera, covering the lens in darkness.

* * *

 **Sierra- 8th**

 **Sammy- 9th**

 **Duncan- 10th**

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **With a heavy heart, we send Sierra off to Loser City. Sierra is a character near and dear to my heart, at least the World Tour version is. She's a fan who got to live the ultimate dream and become a player in her favorite show's story. Going into All-Stars, I knew I wanted to give her a better experience than canon did. She actually was supposed to last a little longer, but immediately after wrapping up Suckers Punched, I had an epiphany that changed my plans last-minute. I realized that aside from winning the season, Sierra did everything she set out to do while on the island, with the exception of winning since the odds of that happening were slim. She got to interview the newer contestants, visited Boney Island, met a mutant, won a challenge, lost a challenge, participated in a tiebreaker challenge, and even visited season one's famous Playa des Losers. Once she got her phone repaired and returned, I figured that her plot was nearly finished. There are other reasons why she was eliminated now, but those will be revealed at a later date.**

 **Sugar was forced to play the statue, and while Topher managed to accomplish his goal, Alejandro is not going to be happy when he finds out that his alliance partner went behind his back to do this. Had Topher told him before the vote, Sierra would probably still be in the game. After taking a break last episode, Sugar started up her sabotage again by breaking most of the boats, which like everything else Mal did, I could see her doing. Also, Jasmine and Shawn have finally reconciled, which I'm sure people are happy about. The Playa is also still standing, and will remain standing to the end of the season.**

 **Even before Sierra's elimination was finalized, I intended for the flushed contestant to be sent to Egypt because that location featured a race. With Sierra being eliminated there, it has become more symbolic. Egypt was the first location that Sierra participated in a challenge, starting her Total Drama journey as a contestant, and her being flushed there brings her journey to a full circle in some way. Katie and Sadie were chosen to pick her up because in their time on the sidelines, they took a fan-ish kind of role, supporting Justin, Trent, and Alejandro, even if it was for mostly superficial reasons and not who they are as people. Them talking about going on a show that travels around the world is a jab at the missed opportunity to have them compete on Ridonculous Race.**

 **I would have finished the episode sooner, but my mind has been buzzing lately with new story ideas, including a concept of the Dramarama toddlers, plus the rest of the kiddified cast, meeting their adult counterparts in the works. So, that's where my mind has been the last few weeks.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	22. TDAS Episode 9

**Nicky Haugh:** Thank you as always.

 **WeirdAlfan101:** Hey, got to get you guys on your toes once in a while, right? Rest assured, Cameron's evacuation left a bitter taste in my mouth too, which is why nothing of the sort will be happening.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** Yeah, it was important to me that Sierra had a better arc.

 **TheLegendaryDragonReaper:** Thanks for the review. Everybody can have their own opinions on things, and I'm going to stick with my opinion that All-Stars is the worst season, and that Sundae Muddy Sundae was one of the worst episodes in the series, if not the worst.

 **SideshowJazz1:** Glad I made the episode so enjoyable for you in many aspects. Thanks for the interest in Drama Toddlers Meet Drama Adults (working title), I'm still working out snags in it. You're welcome for the reviews on your letters.

 **Acosta perez jose ramiro:** Yeah, for all Sierra's quirky behavior, she has shown some creative brilliance at times that could be an obstacle to Sugar winning.

 **LovelyLuly:** Thanks for the review, and your notes on the differences between the main show and Dramarama.

 **AnonBrowser:** Thank you for your opinions on Sierra, but I respectfully disagree that she was the most expendable. And Cody's not bluffing, he's done this thing called 'growing up' and 'character development'. Though I can agree that Jasmine and Shawn making up was well-needed.

 **Knight:** I don't know. Sugar is a kind of person that Gwen has never encountered before, so she may not know what to look for as signs to mistrust Sugar. For all she knows, Sugar is a really strange person with unusual logic.

 **Phenomenal Ultra Instinct:** That's right about Sugar, and yes, I made sure Jasmine and Shawn's thing did not drag out longer than necessary.

 **That British Guy:** Why would Sierra do anything to Playa des Losers? That's a historical Total Drama site, and she loves it.

 **Critica7:** Thanks for the review. You have interesting reactions to the episode. In the game, you never know who's safe, except for the one with the immunity idol.

 **SilentSinger948:** Good to have another Sierra fan on board. It was time for Jasmine and Shawn to reunite, and yeah, Sugar is once again on equal footing with the others.

 **Joel Connell:** Sammy's elimination was basically Alejandro's fault. He saw a lot of himself in her while she fought Amy, and he decided he needed to get her out before he could sympathize with her plight and let her slip further into the game. During the vote, Topher went along with his decision, and Sugar was the tie-breaking vote. Considering how much of an enigma Sugar is, who knows why she voted with them?

Alright, with reviews out of the way, I'd like to remind everyone there is a **TVTropes page** for Cast Swap that is always looking for improvement and additions. If you have something you think can be added to the page, please go ahead. Now onto Episode 100!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a season one DVD and some shirts.

Episode 9- Zeke and Ye Shall Find

The episode opened on recap footage of the previous challenge, with Topher running after Cody and Sierra.

"Last time on Total Drama All-Stars," Chris began to narrate, "the teams were no more, and it was a free-for-all race for the floating machines for a regatta to boat around Wawanakwa." Clips such as the team disbandment, followed by Alejandro jumping into his claimed speedboat, and then Chris's example race on the monitor were shown. Next, Gwen was seen trying the powerboat that Sugar had sabotaged. "But, some floated better than others for some reason. Ahem, Sugar," Chris not so subtly fake coughed when Sugar's previously mentioned sabotage was shown onscreen.

"And Chef supplied some dynamite entertainment," Chris continued to recall over Chef dropping a stick of dynamite onto Jasmine and Shawn's speedboat, which made the engine explode. "Topher won the challenge, and Sierra got into my cottage and out of the game."

The recap finished, and Chris was shown standing on the Dock of Shame. "Seven players move on, one soon will be gone. Who will it be? Stick around and see here on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue intro)

* * *

Later that night after Sierra left, Topher decided to live his first solo victory of the season in style. For him, that meant relaxing in the hot tub that accompanied the spa hotel while being served by the butler employed there.

"Ah," Topher sighed contently. "I no longer have to envision my future because I am _living_ it! A whole spa hotel to myself. Once I win the million and my hosting career really takes off, living will only get better than this." The butler arrived with a smoothie complete with a straw, and Topher took the drink from his hand. "Thank you very much. Keep this up, and I may just hire you for myself one day." As the butler left, Topher took a long slurp of his smoothie.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Cody asked from the side. Topher looked over, and saw the geek wearing his swim shorts.

Topher shrugged. "Sure, knock yourself out."

"Thanks." Cody stepped into the hot tub. "Really appreciate picking me to join you here. With my team's losing streak, I was wondering if we'd ever get back in here."

"No problem, if it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't have gotten that ride from Alejandro that won me the challenge," Topher said, slurping another swallow of his drink. "You want one? The smoothies that guy can make are really refreshing."

"No thanks, I'm good. And speaking of not doing things, don't go in the dining room for a while. Fang's got the place pretty full."

The camera briefly cut to the dining hall, where Fang sat at the head of the table, shoveling all sorts of meat into his big mouth and swallowing without a single motion of chewing. He had stacks of bacon, hot dogs, steaks, and other various meat products spread out across the table.

"If the butler wasn't so professional, I would think he'd _never_ want to cook another piece of bacon or another steak ever again," Cody remarked.

"Eh, he's part of the staff. Not our problem," Topher replied with a roll of his shoulders.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Why do you want to be so close to Alejandro? The guy's a-!"

"Two-faced wolf who will kill and eat a sheep right after he comments on their wool? Easy, he's hot and manipulative. If anyone can get me to the end of the game, it's him," Topher answered, cutting Cody off mid-statement.

"Well, I don't know about the first thing, but _manipulative_? Yeah, pretty on the nose there. Aren't you worried he's going to betray you like those sheep?"

"Duh, of course I am. Which is why when it comes down to it, I plan on backstabbing him first." Thinking for a moment, he amended, "if I haven't really done it already."

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, he told me not to out Sugar's statue, but I kinda did it anyway. Once I tell him that I did, he may not be happy."

"Is that another reason why you chose me to spend the night here instead of him?" Cody asked pointedly.

"Yeah."

"Good call."

Nodding, Topher drank some more of his smoothie while Cody sunk up to his neck in the hot tub.

* * *

Gwen sighed, reclining on her bunk while sketching in her sketchbook. "Just when I was starting to feel at home in the place."

"Woo," Sugar whooped, throwing the cabin door open and entering. "Today was amazing!"

Looking up from her sketchbook, she raised an eyebrow at the pageant queen. "Where have you been?"

"Eating piranha fish," Sugar said. "I got the idea earlier, and really wanted to try it out. The interns kept coming to try and make me _stop_ , but I shoved them off."

Gwen stared at her roommate weirdly. "Can you even eat piranha?"

Sugar rummaged through her stuff, eventually finding her makeup bag. "Heck if I know, but I just did it and they were delicious."

Setting down her sketchbook, Gwen sat upright. "Okay then, weird eating habits aside, why are so happy anyway? You had to use your statue."

"Yeah, but I'm still here and a step closer to the prize money. I call that a win."

"You sound delighted for someone who had to use up an advantage."

"Eh, you pick that up in pageants. You gotta show the judges and the audience your most positive self. They like that in a winner." Sugar dug through her makeup bag, and found her toothbrush. "You coming? A potential pageant winner needs their beauty sleep."

Gwen rejected the offer with a wave of her hand, returning her attention to her sketchbook. "Nah, you go ahead. I prefer staying up later."

"Suit yourself. Night!" Sugar stepped back out into the island wilderness.

The camera cut to outside, showing Sugar walking towards the communal washroom before zooming in on the guys' side of the loser cabin.

"I do not blame Topher for wanting to keep our alliance under wraps and repay the favor he owed those pitiful Hamsters, but I still wish he had chosen me," the charmer commented to no one as he looked around the empty room. "Him and Cody are in the spa hotel, and Shawn prefers sleeping in the trees. I should not be suffering here by myself. I suppose the only good part of this arrangement is some peace and quiet. It's been far too long since I had some of that." Lifting up the covers of a bunk, he crawled in and covered up. Resting his head against the pillow, he closed his eyes in preparation to sleep. That lasted for all of twenty seconds before he removed the covers. "I know I started sleeping out of my sleeping bag, but in _this_ situation, it's probably more comfortable." Getting up, he went to go retrieve it.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"Am I happy that Sugar used the statue?" He asked the audience. "I am happy to an extent, but something doesn't make sense. Why would the others vote for her? Unless they've finally realized how disgusting she is, I can't think of a reason why other than…" His thought vocalizing slowed to a stop. "The statue? Topher! That mini-Chris went behind my back and told everyone about it when I told him not to!" Pointing to the camera, he swore, "I've got my eye on you, Topher. Do not slip up again, or this may be when our alliance needs to part ways."

* * *

The bonfire was still glowing strong later that night, and the conspiracy nut sat contently near it. He heard footsteps, and looked in the direction of the beach.

"Well, look who it is," Shawn greeted Jasmine with a smile on his face. He then noticed something in her hands. "Hey, you found your hat!"

Jasmine nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, and it only took a couple of hours wandering the beach surrounding the island." She set the hat on the ground near the fire pit, and sat down next to Shawn. "All it needs is a quick dry, and then I can wear it again. Anyway, what's going on with you? Why are you sitting by the fire all on your lonesome?"

Shawn gave a shrug. "Just felt like it. Plus, zombies hate fire, so I have a feeling I'm safe for now."

"Ah," Jasmine said with a tone of understanding, "mind if I sit here while I wait for my hat?"

"Sure, you coming along is actually making this _better_ than it already was."

Exchanging smiles, the pair sat in peace. The camera cut to behind their backs, the firelight shadowing their frames. After a few moments in silence, Jasmine turned to Shawn.

"You know how you said your zombie… hobby didn't get you a lot of friends?" She prodded.

"Yeah," he replied, glancing at her. "What about it?"

Jasmine looked down shyly, which was normally uncharacteristic for her. "Let's just say that my outdoors hobby didn't get me a whole lot of mates either."

Shawn raised an eyebrow, interested. "Really?"

"Really." The explorer gazed up at the stars above them. "It all started when I moved to Canada when I was six. When I was growing up in Australia, I learned a lot about living in the wild. My family would go into the outback almost every weekend, and camp out. I learned how to forage, how to navigate without a map, and how to kill anything that might want to kill us. Kids at school back there really admired kids that knew that stuff. When I moved here, I found out that kids here didn't appreciate that as much. One time, a snake got into our playground. Darn thing freaked out all the kids there _except_ me. Since I figured I was the only one there who knew how to deal with it, I went and killed it while everyone else ran around screaming or trying to find a place to hide. Instead of thanking me and thinking I was the coolest kid like back in my classroom in Australia, everyone here looked at me like I was crazy, as if I should've just ran and screamed like they did." She sighed heavily, lowering her gaze again. "Nobody spoke to me for a while after that, and then it got worse after I went through my growth spurt and got stronger. I think, I think by that point, it wasn't how strange everybody saw me, but that I intimidated people."

Shawn frowned, having done so at some point in her story sympathetically. "I'm sure it wasn't like that, was it?"

Jasmine glanced at Shawn flatly. "Mate, I can literally punch a _tree_ and make it fall over."

"Oh."

They both sat quietly for a few moments more, and then, Shawn bent over to pick up Jasmine's hat. Shaking it out, he handed it to her with a smile.

"For what it's worth," he began to say, "if I wanted anybody to have my back in an apocalypse scenario, I'd choose you. Anybody who wouldn't want your strength and skills is an idiot."

"Thanks," Jasmine said, smiling back while putting her hat on her head. "And if I ever get stranded in the outback with someone, I hope it's you."

The pair ignored the bonfire, choosing instead to enjoy each other's company.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"Shawn is probably the most like any Australian boy I've ever met," she admitted. Looking at the camera, she grinned happily. "He knows how to survive, and I like that in a guy. Which is good all things considered in this game. With Sammy out, I need someone I can count on to help me remain on the island."

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Fire," the conspiracy nut stated confidently with a raised finger, "it keeps zombies away, and lets other survivors know you're alive. I knew staying at the bonfire pit was a good idea." He boasted, folding his arms over his chest. "And, I have a good feeling that Jasmine won't make a mistake that leads me to becoming zombie food."

* * *

After the sun rose the next day, the loudspeakers finally blared to life mid-morning.

"Challenge time," Chris announced, "please proceed to the McLean spa library."

At the loser cabin, Gwen stood on the porch with a skeptical expression. "The spa hotel has a _library_? First time I'm hearing about this." Shrugging her shoulders, she descended the steps to head over. Sugar poked her head out the screen door, and jogged over to join her.

"I know something else you're gonna be hearing for the first time," the pageant queen said, reaching out to stop the loner. Looking around, she whispered secretly to Gwen, "I hear it's Al and Topher's fault that girl with the phone left last night."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "You're saying Alejandro is the reason Sierra and I went to a tie?" She rolled her eyes with annoyance. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"Yeah, I think he and his pal played us all for fiddles," guessed Sugar. "I don't know how they knew about my statue thingy, but maybe they decided to use it as a cover or something so I'd get blamed for the whole thing when I used it."

Lifting a hand, Gwen considered the idea. "That does _sound_ like a strategy that Alejandro would come up with."

"And it makes sense too," Sugar added, "they were gunning for me last challenge to make it seem more real. You don't just ram someone else's fancy boat with yours if you don't have some scheme going on." She pointed a finger at Gwen. "You keep an eye on him. Topher too."

"Same goes for you," Gwen replied, nodding her head. The two former Vultures continued heading towards the spa hotel.

* * *

Several minutes later, the final seven teens were in a room full of monitors and recording equipment along with Chef, who was holding a steaming cup of coffee. Sugar stood at the front of the group, having shoved her way there with Cody and Topher behind her as the spa's recent guests. Alejandro and Gwen stood behind them, followed by Jasmine and Shawn in the back. Noticeably, Jasmine and Shawn stood closer to each other than they usually did. The only thing missing was a certain host with a massive ego. Naturally, as someone who wanted to usurp the position, Topher was the first to ask.

"Hey, where's Chris?" The wannabe host inquired.

"Just hush up," Chef ordered, "you'll see in a minute." Raising his mug, he took a swig of his beverage.

True to Chef's command, the widest monitor in the room turned itself on, revealing Chris in another location. The host wore a party hat and was blowing a noisemaker. Behind him appeared to be a long table with a buffet of foods, including a tall four-layered cake with 100 spelled out in numbered candles.

"Welcome to _episode 100_ of Total Drama!" The host greeted on the video. He then ducked out of frame to show off the buffet while the campers looked at each other in bewilderment. None of them had realized that the show had reached such a milestone. He returned onscreen, holding a sheet of paper. "To celebrate, I have an extra special one hundredth challenge!" Chuckling, he failed to notice the dark figure lurking in the shadows behind the table. "I hope none of you are allergic to rhinoceroses, fire, poison, smallpox, gluten…"

The figure ran off-screen, and then came back, closer to the camera. It was Ezekiel, looking as sickly green and hairless as his last appearance. The feral ex-camper grunted furiously while Chris's back was turned to him.

"Is that?" Gwen gasped, pointing while several pairs of eyes went wide.

"Formaldehyde, dirt, tree nuts…" Chris continued to list off, unaware of the danger.

"Look out!" Most of the contestants screamed at him in warning.

"Please do not interrupt," the host responded flippantly, "I'm- whoa!" Ezekiel slammed a burlap sack over Chris's body, and then attacked the camera, making it turn to static.

Chef was so surprised by the sudden disconnection that he spit his coffee onto the monitor, which dripped down onto the keyboard underneath it and shorted out every monitor in the room.

"That can't- agh!" Chef tried to find the words to express his feelings about the situation, but settled for yelling in frustration when he failed. Whirling around, he barked, "New challenge- find Chris!"

"You want us to hunt for Zeke?" Gwen exclaimed incredulously. "No way! He's psycho crazy!"

Cody added, "And it's you guys' fault this happened in the first place." He yelped when Chef jabbed a finger in his face, recoiling.

"Hey, if no one saves Chris then there ain't no show, which means no winner and _no million dollars_!" Chef emphasized, still wagging his finger.

Topher raised a hand. "Uh, you can have a show without Chris. Hello, prime substitute host here." He motioned to himself.

The cook shook his head. "No Chris, no show!"

His attempt at hosting within reach, Topher gave an irritated growl, making strangling motions with his hands. Alejandro placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Hold on," the charmer said with the tone of someone who had an idea to take advantage of the situation. "We accept this challenge only if the one who finds Chris gets immunity for the next vote."

Catching onto his plan, Sugar demanded, "And get to stay in this here spa hotel the rest of the time they're in the game."

"And they also get to pick the next person to take exile on Boney Island," Cody tacked on, sending a glare in Alejandro's direction.

"Fine, deal! Just find Chris!" Chef pleaded.

Humming in thought, Jasmine pointed out, "Last season, Ezekiel was living in the mine. I bet my hat that's where he took Chris."

"To the mine," Chef declared, while Topher swung his arms up indignantly.

* * *

A flash cut had Chef and the campers standing outside the mine shaft entrance that had been used last season to start the seventh challenge.

"Huh, still looks pretty sealed up," Shawn remarked.

Jasmine put a hand on her hip, glancing down at her alliance partner. "He already found his way out once. There's probably more escape routes around here that nobody noticed before."

Chef tossed everyone a flashlight, saying, "Then find them. I'm going back to the spa hotel to see if I can get the monitors working."

"Me too," Topher stated, pointing at himself with his thumb. "Whether they like it or not, the show _needs_ a replacement host, at least until Chris gets rescued. At most, it's too late to save him and I'll have already shown my skills." He made to follow Chef back, but was held back by Alejandro grabbing his arm.

"Oh no you're not," Alejandro said harshly. "After the stunt you pulled, you're helping me get that immunity."

"Come on," Topher whined as Alejandro dragged him off to search for an entrance.

The pair went past Sugar, who stood beside Cody and Gwen. When they were out of frame, Sugar leaned towards the latter two. "Told ya they were up to something."

Cody glanced at her suspiciously. "I suppose you want to come with us."

To his surprise, Sugar waved him off. "Nah. Only one person can win all those fancy perks, and I ain't gonna risk losing them to someone else. See ya!" She walked off in the direction opposite of Alejandro and Topher.

Cody stared after her in confusion, only to be soon distracted by Jasmine and Shawn walking past him and Gwen.

"Back into the mine again," Jasmine remarked with little confidence. "Great…"

When they passed, Gwen and Cody shared a look, the former pointing at them and the latter shrugging before they followed.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Sugar is really _weird_ , like 'weirder than Izzy' weird," the geek commented in the outhouse. "As nutty as Izzy is, she'd never turn down a team-up." He gave the toilet paper roll a spin on its holder. "The strange thing is Gwen seems to be acknowledging her despite all that. Something must've happened when they were roomies."

* * *

"Tracks!" Sugar exclaimed gleefully, spotting some footprints in the dirt leading to an unblocked hole in the mine's side. "Size? The same as that fake diamond giver! I'm on the right trail. Alright, you Sugar tricker! I'm coming for you." Grinning deviously, she crawled into the hole.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"This is it!" She proclaimed, spreading her arms wide. "This is where my whole game went _kaput_ last time. Saving Chris is going to be my comeback, I'm going to win this entire pageant, and then I'm going to college to be the first makeup person for animals in movies!"

* * *

On a hill, probably the backside of the mine, the group of Jasmine, Shawn, Gwen, and Cody found several holes that seemed recently dug.

"Crikey, that lad's been busy," Jasmine observed while shining her flashlight down one of them. "Either he dug these, or…" she gulped. "Those mutant gophers are still down there."

"Mutant gophers!" Gwen repeated, growing frantic as her claustrophobia started to kick in. "It's bad enough we're going into tight holes, but possibly being attacked down there?" She began to pace. "I _cannot_ go down a hole. I have a phobia of being buried alive- agh!" Her frantic state led to her not realizing where she was stepping because she accidentally stumbled down one of the holes.

"Gwen!" Cody called after her, jumping into the one she had disappeared down.

"Buried alive?" Jasmine echoed, growing just as frantic as Gwen. "Oh boy, I don't like tight tunnels enough, but I never considered that."

Shawn took her hand, attempting to calm her down. "Jasmine, I'm going to be down there with you the whole time. You can do this. Don't lose your head."

Jasmine inhaled deeply at his words, and tried to slow her breathing. "Okay."

Shawn pointed at a nearby hole with his flashlight. "Let's go with this one. We'll have a better chance of finding Chris if we take a different path than the others."

"I'm still not sure about this," she said even as Shawn pulled her down the hole he picked.

* * *

Meanwhile, Alejandro and Topher found a river that coincidentally fed into the mine.

"Perfecto," Alejandro mentioned to the still disgruntled Topher, standing on a rock in the middle of the river while Topher stood on the riverbank. "If we follow the water in, we may be led straight to where Ezekiel is hiding Chris." He jumped to the next rock, only to run into an unfortunate mishap. "Aye, Topher! My boot is stuck." The charmer attempted to pull his foot out of a wedge between two rocks. "I can't get it out. I require your assistance."

Topher stared at his trapped alliance partner for a moment, looking over his shoulder. "I wonder if it's too late to sneak a ride back to the hotel with Chef."

"Topher!"

Raising his hands, Topher made a calming motion. "Relax. I'd probably have to walk all the way back at this point. Hang on, I'll get your foot out." The wannabe host jumped onto the rock Alejandro had previously occupied.

* * *

Another flash cut occurred as Topher jumped out of view.

The green-skinned hand of Ezekiel was shown pulling the top of the sack off Chris. However, Chris's hair appeared to stand up along with his necklace rising up to his chin. If Chris was aware of either things, he didn't show it. Instead, he chuckled.

"Hardy har, Chef," Chris fake laughed. "Yep, you got me. Chef?"

The footage zoomed out and spun one-eighty degrees, showing Chris was hung up from the ceiling of a cave by some rope. Below him was a vat of toxic waste, surrounded by several discarded waste barrels that Ezekiel must've gotten the waste from. Ezekiel himself stood on a nearby ledge.

Gleefully, Ezekiel rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Eheheheh."

Chris's eyes went wide when he realized that his captor wasn't Chef, and thus, probably wasn't being pranked. "E-Ezekiel! Hey, buddy… yeah, looking good." He tried not to look at the drool dripping from Ezekiel's mouth, but from what he could see, the drool still looked normal. "Um, what's up? You upset with me, or something?"

The former camper seemed to understand the question, for he raised his arms and made some menacing gestures while he hissed and growled.

"I'm not very well-versed in _freakazoidial interpretive dance_ , but I'll take that as a yes," Chris quipped, trying to make light of the situation.

* * *

In a tunnel somewhere in the mine, Jasmine and Shawn walked along with their flashlights clicked on. Evidently, their tunnel led them not too far from the surface because cracks of light could be seen through the tunnel's ceiling.

"Well, this didn't take us very far down," Shawn remarked, sounding almost disappointed. "We should've gone with a different one."

Jasmine, looking almost frightened, swallowed hard as she followed behind him. "I think our tunnel is perfectly fine to be honest. At least this way, I can get out quick if I really need to."

"Ezekiel probably took Chris deep into the mines, maybe the same place he camped out last time," Shawn told her, glancing up at her with a determined expression. "If we want a chance at rescuing Chris, we have to get further in. Come on." He walked on ahead.

Jasmine groaned, but followed regardless. "I really didn't want to come back here again…"

* * *

In another tunnel, it was mostly dark. The only source of light was Gwen's flashlight, and even that wasn't guaranteed with the way it kept flickering out on its user.

"Come on! Work," Gwen pleaded as the light kept turning on and off, growing increasingly scared with every blackout. "Okay, you can do this. Don't panic, don't panic."

Her flashlight shut off a final time, and the loner let out a shrill scream.

* * *

Back at the hotel, her shriek came through the speakers in the monitor room loud and clear.

Chef stood to the side, watching as the chubby intern successfully plugged two cords together.

"We got sound," Chef stated upon hearing Gwen, and glared down at the intern. "Now where's the dang picture?"

Instead of answering the cook's question, the intern pointed at the camera filming them. Chef caught on, and rolled his eyes at the thought of doing what he was about to do.

"Oh, you want an update?" He asked the camera, as well as the audience. "I got no idea what Zeke is up to, where Chris is, or where the kids are at. And I have no idea how we're going to find any of that out with the monitors on the fritz."

Seeming to realize that Chef wasn't going to do it, the intern dropped the cords and cleared his throat, lifting his arms. "On Total Drama All-!"

"Fix the monitors!" Chef roared over a shot of the island before the show faded to commercial.

* * *

When the show returned, Gwen was still stumbling around in the dark. The only light that could be seen were the silhouettes of her eyes. As she neared the center of the frame, a flashlight turned on, making Gwen scream again.

"Agh! Cody!" She shouted at the geek.

"There you are, Gwen," Cody greeted with a grin. "I knew I'd find you."

Gwen thrust her arms out in exclamation. "You scared me half to death!" Then without warning, she hugged him. "Thank you so much." She let go of him, getting in his face. "Don't you _ever_ do that again." Surprising him once more, she gave him a second hug. "You're the best."

Cody chuckled awkwardly, patting her on the back with his free hand. "Uh, sure? No problem." When she separated from him, he held up a finger. "Now, do me a favor and take a deep breath." Gwen did as asked, and inhaled deeply. "Now, exhale." His alliance partner did as instructed. "Good, let's keep going." He walked past her, taking the lead with his flashlight as they went further down the tunnel.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

"I'm so glad that Cody was down there with me," the loner informed the audience. "If I was by myself, I don't know what I would've done."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

Cody pumped a fist. "My first hug from Gwen. Well, technically first two hugs I guess. It took five seasons, but I finally got them." He smiled at the camera for a few moments, and then frowned. "What? Were you expecting me to celebrate more? It was just a hug, and I've grown up." Rolling his eyes, he folded his arms over his chest, glancing at the wall of the outhouse beside him. "Not the same guy I was back on the plane."

* * *

"What are we going to do once we save Chris?" Jasmine wondered out loud. She and Shawn had gotten deeper into the tunnels, and that led to Jasmine becoming more anxious by the minute. To distract herself, she decided to talk about the furthest thing from dark, narrow tunnels- strategy. "I suppose we'll have to play it by ear depending on who wins now, right?"

Shawn shrugged, walking ahead of her. "I guess. And considering Alejandro's the biggest threat in the game, it might make the most sense to go after him next. If the others are thinking the same thing we are, it shouldn't be hard to get them to join us and make the majority vote."

"But, what if he wins the immunity? What then?" She pointed out.

"Then, we'll go with one of the other original Vultures. You, Cody, and I are the only _original_ Hamsters left, and we're currently outnumbered," reasoned Shawn as he stopped and turned around to face her. "If we can get rid of two Vultures soon, I think we should be safe getting to the end."

"Sounds like a plan," Jasmine agreed with a nod of her head. "But, which one of them should we go after in the case Alejandro can't be voted off?"

"Eh, we'll figure something out later. Let's go this way." Motioning with his hand, Shawn led Jasmine down a tunnel.

* * *

Meanwhile, Alejandro and Topher were still outside. Topher gave a strain of effort, and then he grinned as he lifted his arms up.

"Finally," Topher beamed. "There you go. One free foot."

Alejandro stood in front of the kneeling Topher, kicking his boot back and forth. "Excelente. Gracias, Topher. Now, let us enter the mine." He walked past Topher, his boots splashing in the shallow stream with every step.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven for-?" Topher attempted to ask.

"Not a chance," the swift reply from Alejandro came off-screen. Topher sighed heavily, and jogged to catch up with his teammate.

* * *

Thanks to the superb camera work of the production crew, the footage had such a view of Ezekiel's hateful eyes that Chris could be seen reflected in them. Ezekiel growled as the footage zoomed out to show him snarling at Chris.

"Where's all this anger coming from?" Chris inquired, though he probably knew the answer. "Was it season three when I kicked you off the plane, and made everyone hunt you down? Was it last _year_ when I trapped you inside a mine filled with toxic waste, and sent you off the Hurl of Shame with Shawn? Or, was it _this_ season when I flew you back in just to boot you out again?"

Considering the huge, croaky roar that Ezekiel gave in response, the correct answer was all the above.

Chris smiled casually in spite of the clear rage. "Aw, you wouldn't let something like televised humiliation come between us, would you?"

Ezekiel padded over to a box, and opened it, lifting the box up for Chris to see. Inside were dark-colored rats with beady red eyes.

"Cute pets," Chris commented, though he winced when they started to squeal furiously.

* * *

As they went on, the tunnels got wetter. Droplets of moisture fell from the stalactites above them. The eerie sound of water falling was getting to Gwen, who was starting to whimper at every little thing, and she jumped when she thought she heard something behind her.

"Gahaha!" Cody shouted, making the loner whirl around in response. Right where Cody formerly stood in front of her, his flashlight sat abandoned. She let out an ear-piercing shriek.

* * *

(Confessional- Gwen)

Gwen curled up on her side in the confessional outhouse, whimpering as she laid in a fetal position.

* * *

Back at the spa hotel, Chef and the chubby intern had made progress. When the cameras checked back in with them, the intern had successfully plugged the monitors back in and got them running.

"We got picture!" Chef declared, pumping a fist before realizing what the monitors were displaying. "What in tarnation-?!"

On the far right screen, Cody was seen trapped in a wooden cage, with some very clearly damp pants. The footage panned left to the central monitor, where Chris's hostage situation was in full view. Chef gasped sharply upon seeing his co-worker and friend in such a perilous situation.

* * *

(Confessional- Chef)

Much like Gwen before him, Chef was in a fetal position on the seat in the outhouse, barely able to mumble coherently.

* * *

Sugar sauntered through a tunnel, her flashlight active in her hand. As she looked around, she had an annoyed expression on her face.

"Dumb Chris, making us rescue him. What fool goes and gets himself nabbed by a kid that acts more like a _critter_ than a person," the pageant queen muttered to herself, unaware of the hypocrisy of her statement considering how she ended up receiving her game-ending diamond. "Once I save his sorry butt and get that spa, I'm getting a full treat-mennnt!" In her self-absorbed rambling, she failed to notice a cliff that she unwittingly walked over and fell further into the tunnels.

Elsewhere, Jasmine and Shawn were walking through another tunnel, pausing when they heard familiar screaming.

"Hey, what's that?" asked Shawn.

Without warning, Sugar slid down from a hole, and crashed into the pair, sending up a dirt cloud and making all three campers cough. When the cloud cleared, the pair got a better look at who crashed into them.

"Sugar?!" Jasmine inquired in surprise.

Sugar rubbed her head as she got to her feet, along with Jasmine and Shawn. "Would it kill them to put up a sign or something that there's a cliff next time?"

Shawn pointed a finger at her. "What's the big idea ramming into us like that?"

Not liking being accused, Sugar waved a finger back at him. "I didn't do nothing. It was the stupid cliff's fault."

Jasmine glowered. "Would you keep it down? Zeke might hear us with the shouting you two are doing."

"If you were actually paying attention to your surroundings," Shawn lectured Sugar, "you wouldn't have fallen over that cliff in the first place."

"Guys," Jasmine tried to intervene.

"And if you weren't such a _pigbrain_ , you'd know that it wasn't my fault," Sugar shot back. A shadow started to lurk over them. Jasmine noticed this, gasping softly, and made a run for it.

"Jasmine, back me up here. Tell her she was being- Jasmine?" Shawn looked over his shoulder, seeing that his partner was no longer there. He heard a gasp from Sugar, and then he finally saw it.

He only had a brief moment to scram at the sight of Ezekiel leaping at the both of them.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"Okay, I feel really bad for running off like that," Jasmine admitted, sheepishly playing with her fingers. "But it happened, alright? I panicked. I was in dark, _claustrophobic_ tunnels, and I panicked. Anybody with my problem probably would've done the same thing."

* * *

Unbeknownst to Chef Hatchet, who was eating a tub of mint-chocolate chip ice cream while concernedly watching the feed focused on Chris, the footage of Shawn and Sugar turned to static. The intern poked his head out from under the monitor desk, frowning at Chef.

"What?" The man retorted defensively. "I eat when I'm stressed."

The footage on the far right monitor changed to the cage again, where Shawn and Sugar were now in with Cody. It was then Chef noticed something on the central monitor.

"Zoom in on the rope holding Chris," he ordered to the intern, who obeyed. The rats that Ezekiel had showed off to Chris were now on the rope, chewing on it. Chef gasped softly, looking at the ice cream tub in his arms. "We're gonna need more ice cream."

* * *

"Shawn?" Cody inquired, walking over to the fresh captives. "Why're you with Sugar? I thought you were with Jasmine."

"She was with him," Sugar answered, crossing her arms as she glared at the conspiracy nut. "Until she ditched him to save herself."

Shawn pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Don't you start. We were getting along just fine until you came along. What kind of idiot do you have to be to walk over a cliff?"

"It was a cliff!" Sugar shouted. "What kinda cliff doesn't have a sign that says 'Watch out! Cliff ahead'?"

"One in an _abandoned mine_!"

"Well, that Ezekiel guy seems to be living here, so it's not abandoned anymore, is it?" Sugar replied, using some rather… interesting logic for her argument. She paused, sniffing with her nose. "Hey, do y'all smell pee?"

Cody, who had backed away when the two new prisoners had started arguing, quickly covered the front of his pants. "No! Why, do you smell something?"

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"I thought I grew out of that!" lamented Cody, who sighed and put his head in his palms. "I'll never live this down."

* * *

Panting, Jasmine stopped in what looked to be a more spacious area than before, looking over her shoulder. "Okay, I should be safe for now." She frowned to herself. "I hope Shawn isn't too mad about me running off." Looking around, she tried to identify her surroundings. "Where am I, anyway?"

The footage zoomed out, showing that she was at the underground pond where Sammy and Topher landed after their mining cart went off the rails.

"Hey! I recognize this place! Heh, I wonder if Chris's old phone is still down here somewhere." Speaking of Topher…

Jasmine spun on her heel, scowling. "You two!"

Alejandro merely shrugged as he and Topher approached her. "What are the odds that following a stream into the mine would lead us to an underground pond?" He asked rhetorically. "I see Shawn is not with you. I take it you must've gotten separated."

Jasmine jabbed a finger at him. "That's none of your business."

Topher smiled at Alejandro. "He totally got captured, didn't he?"

Alejandro agreed. "I indeed think so."

"Hey, while we've got you here, what do you think of teaming up with us to eliminate Sugar?" Topher offered, and Jasmine raised an eyebrow in reply. "She's more bad news than you think, and we need to nip that pageant schemer in the bud."

"Why should I have anything to do with you? You both have been bad news from day one," argued Jasmine. "And I think you're a bigger problem to deal with than someone who thinks with her _stomach_ more than anything else."

Alejandro pursed his lips, thinking what to say next, and then noticed something. "Hey, what's that?" He pointed at the water. He, Topher, and Jasmine looked at the underground pond, specifically the trail of bubbles on the surface moving closer to them. The sight was so creepy, Jasmine actually joined the boys in backing away from the shore.

Even though they knew what was probably coming, it didn't surprise them any less when Ezekiel leaped out, growling.

Reacting purely on impulse, Topher scrunched his eyes shut and shoved Alejandro forward. "Take Al!"

Alejandro stumbled, and then screamed when Ezekiel came at his face.

* * *

The monitor room at the spa hotel was filled with empty mint-chocolate chip ice cream tubs by this point. Poking his head out from a pile gathered by the keyboard, the intern stared at Chef in bewilderment.

"We're outta ice cream," Chef informed him, tossing away the last empty tub. "Total Drama _will not_ end at episode 100." Taking out his trusted pasta blaster, he checked to see if it was operational. Once he was sure it was, he marched out of the room.

When the camera focused on the intern, he lifted his hands helplessly. It was clear he had no idea what Chef had in mind as much as the audience did.

* * *

Alejandro winced as Ezekiel locked him in the cage with the others. He turned around, asking, "Is this supposed to be a party?" He flinched again when something brown hit his arm. "Gah!"

Shawn, Sugar, and Cody were also pelted with the brown stuff. Cody, who was in a fetal position in the corner, pleaded, "Tell me that's fudge."

Sugar, the only person gross enough to test the theory, licked some off her arm. Smacking her lips, she answered, "Yep! That's fudge, and it's delicious!" With renewed vigor, she stuck her whole hand, covered in fudge, in her mouth and began to suck on it.

Shawn wiped a chunk off his face, and licked his finger. "Not bad compared to the bakery I used to work at, but I've had better."

As it turned out, throwing food at his captives was Ezekiel's way of serving snacks to the party-goers. He started grabbing sticky buns, and threw them at his prisoners.

* * *

In a tunnel somewhere else in the mine, Topher and Jasmine jogged beside each other.

"Are you sure throwing Alejandro to Zeke was the best idea?" Jasmine asked, not really caring anymore that they were on opposing teams the whole season.

"Hey, it kept Zeke off our backs, didn't it? And I think Alejandro is mad at me already, so what difference would that have made?" Topher replied. "Let's just find Chris. I want this show to be around long enough for me to host it. Oof!"

While they were talking during their jog, the pair accidentally bumped into Gwen.

"Gwen?" Jasmine confirmed.

"You guys! You have no idea how happy I am to see you," Gwen said gratefully. "Being down here alone has been driving me bonkers!"

"Wait, are the three of us the only ones left?" Jasmine checked. "I was with Shawn and Sugar when they got nabbed, we just lost Alejandro, and you're not with Cody…"

"Holy crap, I think we are!" Gwen exclaimed, clutching her head.

Jasmine raised her hands. "Keep it down. Shouting was how Zeke found Shawn and Sugar."

"Keep it down?" Gwen repeated, losing any cool she had to her phobia. "We're already down! Down several people, down who knows how many feet underground! How further _down_ are we going to go before we die down here?"

Topher felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and he looked up to the ceiling, his eyes widening. He pointed upwards. "Ask him!"

Both of his female companions glanced up where he indicated, and gasped sharply. Ezekiel pounced down on Topher and Gwen, making all three contestants shout in fright.

* * *

The scene cut ahead to Topher and Gwen both waking up in the cage with the others, sans Jasmine.

"Gwen!" Cody rushed over to her, kneeling beside her. "Are you okay?"

To his surprise, she smacked his hand away as she stood up. "I nearly died. Do you think I'd be okay after that?"

Topher rose to his feet, wiping his pants. As he met Alejandro's eyes, he saw the look of anger in the charmer's eyes. "Hey, Alejandro…"

His alliance partner pointed an accusatory finger at him. "Save it, _amigo_. I think it's pretty clear that you're ready to cut ties."

"Don't act like you wouldn't do the same at any point," Topher retorted, becoming as vindictive as his accuser. "I know you, Al. I saw your season."

* * *

(Confessional- Topher)

"He's trying to make it look like I'm as bad as him," Topher said, crossing his arms. "Well, I'm not, so good luck convincing everyone else."

* * *

Ezekiel's pet rats were making progress in cutting the ropes suspending Chris over the vat, and with every shredded bit, Chris lowered closer to it.

"Uh, little rodents?" Chris spoke up, concern clear on his face for his own safety. "Let's make a deal here. I know a cheese artisan. Surely, we could work something out." There was a big snap, and he dipped several inches closer to the toxic waste. "Okay… getting _scaredy_. Help…"

Jasmine, having followed Ezekiel back to the cavern after he captured Gwen and Topher, crouched behind a rock to observe what she was up against. Chris could be heard yelling for help, louder than his first plea.

"Everybody else is trapped…" she murmured to herself. "Chris is hung up… emu's feathers, I wish I had some backup."

As if she had practically asked for it, Chef ran past her, making the explorer blink.

"I said HELP!" Chris called for aid loudly.

Chef entered the cavern proper, and saw his friend. "Chris!" The contestants began to cheer upon seeing the cook, realizing that they were potentially being rescued. Noticing the rats, Chef quickly picked up a stick and swatted them off the host before they could sever the ropes.

"What took you so long?" Chris demanded not unkindly, before sniffing deeply. "And why do you smell like _mint-chocolate chip ice cream_?" The pair flinched when they heard the sound of a weapon clicking, and turned to see Ezekiel wielding Chef's pasta blaster.

Ezekiel fired at Chef, coating the man in pasta noodles and sauce. The blow was enough to stun Chef, who fell to the floor. Seeing Chef go down made the captured campers stop cheering and gasp in horror.

"Zeke! Zeke, let's talk about this," Chris stammered hastily, his hope for rescue vanishing.

It was clear Ezekiel was in no mood to talk. With his rats knocked out of action, he dropped the blaster and moved to finish Chris off himself.

That was a mistake.

Before he could leap up and snap the rope, Jasmine had picked up the discarded weapon, clicking it in preparation.

"Hey, Zeke!" She called out. The feral camper whipped around, snarling. "You look like you need something to _eat_!" Jasmine pulled the trigger, firing a ball of pasta and sauce that stuck Ezekiel to the floor.

He thrashed in the pasta, attempting to get out. Everyone cheered at Jasmine's well-timed rescue.

Jasmine made quick work of tying Ezekiel up with some spare rope he had around the cave for Chris's capture, and then went to go get Chris away from the vat.

"Ow! You could've been more gentle," the host admonished as she dropped him on the cave floor but left him tied up. Leaving him, Jasmine broke the lock on the cage, and freed the other campers.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Chris ordered once he was free of his bonds.

"Wait," Cody spoke up, bringing everyone's attention to him. "What about Zeke?"

Ezekiel struggled to get out of Jasmine's bindings, but failed in his efforts. Cody hated to admit it, but it looked like Jasmine's knots were better than his.

Chris shrugged. "What about him?"

"Shouldn't we take him with us?" Cody prompted. "Like finally get him _medical attention_ , or something?"

"Why would we bring him back to camp? He _kidnapped_ me!"

"Because this whole thing is your fault!" Cody accused, throwing his arms in the air. "If you had just gotten him some help the moment you found out he was still around instead of using him in your twisted challenges, he wouldn't have become like this to abduct you in the first place!"

"Yeah, he's right," Jasmine agreed, frowning at the host.

"And he would stop looking and acting like a zombie!" Shawn added, scowling.

"Seriously," Topher joined in, "even I would treat the campers better if I was host. Unlike you, I seem to have _standards_."

Chris stared back at all the furious looks he was being given, and eventually sighed in annoyance. "Fine! We'll bring him with. His freakshow thing was getting old, anyway."

* * *

(Confessional- Chris)

"For the record, I would like to state that I, Chris McLean, was never actually scared of that freak named Ezekiel. Sure, it looked like I was scared, but I was faking." Chris tried to defend. Putting on a smile, he placed a hand over his heart. "I would say that dramatic performance is worth at least _five_ Gemmy awards. Thanks!"

* * *

Later that night, the bonfire was proceeding as scheduled in spite of the unorthodox challenge.

Alejandro, Topher, and Sugar sat in the back row of the stump seats, and Gwen, Cody, Shawn, and Jasmine sat in the front row. Jasmine, in particular, sat on the end closest to where Chris stood with Chef. The cook himself had an arm in a cast and sling.

"Jasmine wins our never-to-be-repeated or spoken-of-again challenge," Chris announced, smiling his way through the horrible flashbacks to the day. "She saved all of us, but more importantly, she saved me. So, I'll honor the deal Chef made. The spa hotel is yours, Jasmine."

"Thank you," Jasmine thanked the host, "but, I'm fine with my tree." She glanced at Cody down the row. "Cody, since you stood up for Ezekiel getting treated, why don't you take it?"

Sugar stood up in outrage. "What? She can't do that! Can she?"

Chris shrugged. "Eh, she saved the most important life ever today. I'll allow it."

The pageant queen scowled fiercely, sitting down again.

"Nice," Cody grinned, sharing a grin with Gwen as they bumped fists.

"Jasmine, who do you want to send to Boney Island?" Chris continued on as Chef walked off.

Jasmine tapped her chin thoughtfully. "There aren't many options left, but I think I'll pick Alejandro."

"Que? But, I served exile last time." Alejandro protested.

"Face it, dude. You're a popular choice," the host teased as Chef came back with the plate of marshmallows. Chris took it when it was offered to him. "Okay, marshmallows. The first one obviously goes to Jasmine."

The explorer smiled, catching her marshmallow in hand.

"Gwen."

Smirking lightly, Gwen snatched her marshmallow as it flew at her.

"Cody."

The geek grinned hugely, happily receiving his sugary treat.

"Shawn."

The conspiracy nut caught his marshmallow without issue.

"Alejandro."

Catching his marshmallow, Alejandro pocketed it so he would have a snack for exile.

Sugar crossed her arms in a huff while Topher visibly began to panic.

"Sugar, Topher, it's down to the two of you. Sugar, it's been clear there's a _vendetta_ against you for a little while, and tonight might be the night it takes you out." Sugar sent a dark look at Alejandro and Topher sitting beside her. "Topher, you've made some _questionable_ decisions these past few days, and I heard you were trying to take my job while I was… occupied. Not cool." Topher flashed an irritated look at the host for the comment, but said nothing in response. "The final marshmallow goes to…"

Sugar redirected her dark glare towards Chris.

Topher raised his hands to his face, fearful of his position in the game.

"…Sugar."

"Yes!" Sugar ran up to Chris, and stole the marshmallow from his hand. She pointed at Alejandro and Topher with a disgusted sneer. "You two thought you could get rid of me? Well, that ain't happening."

"But, why?" Topher voice his question, gesturing to his alliance partner. "Alejandro is more of a threat than me."

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"Even though I don't like Alejandro or Topher," she informed the camera, "it didn't sit right with me how Topher practically threw Alejandro at Ezekiel. With Shawn by my side, I can deal with Alejandro later."

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"If Topher is ready to make such a betrayal, then he can leave," the charmer huffed. "Besides, I work better on my _own_ anyway. He was probably holding me back from reaching the finale."

* * *

Topher floated in the Flush of Shame, and even though he didn't have anybody coming to see him off, he wanted to get his last words out anyway.

"I may have screwed up my alliance, but I still want Alejandro to win. And everybody better watch out for Sugar, she's smarter than she's letting on. And one day, one day, I'll be hosting this shooooow!" He went spinning down the drain.

Chris smiled, finally happy to be rid of Topher. "Like that'll happen. It wasn't how I wanted to spend the one-hundredth episode of Total Drama, but at least I'm not hurt. Tune in next time for a challenge that was actually planned on Total Drama All-Stars!"

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

When the clip started, there was nothing to be seen but open water. Bubbles began to gather in a spot, and after a few moments, Topher emerged, panting for air and his bangs drooping over his eyes.

"Ugh, peh!" The wannabe host spat water out of his mouth. "If that toilet isn't gone by the time I become host, it's _going to be_ when I do! Blegh, puh!" He spat a few more times before a big, black and white creature rose up from underneath him- a dolphin. "What the? Whoa!"

The dolphin began zipping through the water across the screen.

A brief cut later showed a wooden cabin sitting by a beach with fishing boats on the shore, and a lighthouse standing tall in the background. Unable to get several feet closer to the sand, the dolphin bucked Topher off its back for the last little stretch, and swam back out to sea when he hit land.

Topher groaned as a light voice called out pleasantly, "Thank you, mister dolphin! My goodness, Topher, you're soaked. Towel?" Pink slippered feet entered the shot, and Topher lifted his head up to see the kind face of Ella staring down at him with a towel in hand.

"Ella?" Topher asked in confusion.

She smiled at him, helping the wannabe host to his feet. "That's right. Oh dear, I do not envy you or the others if you have to deal with that dreaded toilet. Here." Ella took the towel, and started dabbing at his drenched shirt with it.

"Uh, thanks?" Topher raised an eyebrow. "While you're doing that, can you explain what's going on here?"

"Oh most certainly, sweet Rodney and I were sent out here to pick you up after your elimination. We were so lucky to retrieve you so close to _home_. Some of the others have had to go out to Easter Island and Egypt to pick up our other friends."

"Seriously? What kind of plumbing does the Flush of Shame even have?" Topher glanced around. "And where's Rodney, anyway? He came with you, right?"

"That's correct," Ella nodded absently. "He's just up in the house helping our kind host make you a hot meal. You must be _famished_ after such an exhausting journey."

Speaking of Rodney, the country boy poked his head out the screen door. "Uh, Ella?"

The fairytale princess glanced up, along with Topher. "Yes, my lovely prince?"

"You know how we thought this guy kinda looked like Chris, but shorter with a red beard?"

"I recall. Why, is there a problem?"

"Well, turns out he's Chris's _cousin_ , and he noticed that it's Topher we're picking up, so…"

Swearing came from inside the house, and nobody would know what he was saying to insult Topher except the locals who spoke Newfoundland slang. Rodney didn't look like he understood what Chris's cousin was saying, but he still cringed nonetheless.

On the beach, Topher groaned. "Aw man…"

* * *

 **Topher- 7th**

 **Sierra- 8th**

 **Sammy- 9th**

 **Duncan- 10th**

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **Ever have one of those days where you make a possible game-ending mistake? Topher had one of those last episode, and it continued to spiral downward from there. Add in his constant desire to replace Chris as host in a situation where Chris has been forcibly removed from his position, and he became a prime target for elimination.**

 **This episode was one of my least favorites to write. I think it mostly has to do with how bad the canon episode was. You have Mal trying to manipulate Cameron, who was done an injustice by being saved twice only to be made into a medical evacuation, the start of an official Scottney relationship that made no sense, Alejandro fussing over a boot, and the fact that Ezekiel is once again denied medical treatment. For the series' one hundredth episode, it should not have been as underwhelming as it was. Trying to adapt such a terrible episode to the Cast Swap universe was really tough, and I don't know how I could improve it more than I already tried.**

 **I suppose aside from Topher's mistakes and his downfall, the only two noteworthy things that came out of this episode are Shawn and Jasmine's bonfire chat, as well as the cast insisting that Ezekiel be given proper medical attention. For the bonfire chat, I actually forgot to note in the last episode that Jasmine found her hat after the challenge, so it made a good excuse to have her wander back to the bonfire where Shawn was. The bonfire chat was meant to give depth to Jasmine and Shawn's renewed bond. As for Ezekiel, my one goal when I started writing this episode was to ensure the feral Zeke gimmick came to an END. No matter what, someone had to call Chris out for not taking care of Ezekiel's situation and pressure him into seeing to Zeke getting help.**

 **Rodney and Ella were chosen as Topher's pick-up crew because Rodney was sort of Topher's friend last season, and Ella could use her connection with animals to search the bay for Topher. Newfoundland was selected as his flush location because the episode focused on Chris's rescue, and as most of us recall, Chris is from there.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


	23. TDAS Episode 10

**WeirdAlfan101:** Glad I threw you for a loop. It's fun to do that. Not sure if your predictions are going to happen, tbh.

 **QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless:** So what I'm hearing is you're happy with the way things are going. Let's see if that trend continues.

 **SideshowJazz1:** I can see the comparison to the London episode. Glad to address the Ezekiel thing. I mean, it's the last time we saw that as far as canon goes, so why not make that the end point. Happy to hear everything else satisfied you as well.

 **AnonBrowser:** Glad to hear I improved the episode over the canon version. Yeah, it's kinda Chris and the producers' fault for not acknowledging the Ezekiel situation, and it's also Ezekiel's fault for not knowing when to give up when he lost the game. As for now, let's see what Sugar has up her sleeves for this next challenge.

 **Phenomenal Ultra Instinct:** Hey, somebody had to do it, and since Cody was the last hero left on World Tour, he seemed like the logical choice. And it benefits him since Jasmine gave him her reward for speaking up. Ezekiel should recover in due time.

 **Nicky Haugh:** Thank you as always.

 **LovelyLuly:** Thanks for the additions to the differences list. Interesting thoughts on how the Dramarama versions grow up. I don't know about Rodney and Ella, I think they have a better chance than Rodney's other crushes turned out. And no, I won't be doing a Ridonculous Race: Cast Swap edition with Staci. I'd like to just focus on the main seasons, and I'm not sure much would change if Staci and her partner would compete, tbh.

 **Critica7:** Yeah, the canon episode was awful. Thanks for your elimination order predictions.

 **That British Guy:** Thanks, I think?

 **Guest:** Meh, I hate zombies.

 **The Legendary Dragon Reaper:** Thanks for understanding my point of view on All-Stars.

 **Derick Lindsey:** Yeah, such a shame that happened to Topher. I think Sugar's scheme works because when you look at her, she seems like one of the last people you'd think capable of masterminding an elimination strategy. Things always seem to go that way when they're in the middle of reconnecting, don't they? Yeah, it was time for that plot to end, and since Topher showed up in Newfoundland, I just had to bring in Jerd for another bit. To answer your question, someone else would've been selected for Boney Island.

 **Acosta perez jose ramiro:** Very true of Jasmine. Good observation.

 **SilentSinger948:** Yeah, it was time for the feral plot to end. Also yeah, Topher did screw up and doom his game. Glad to know I could make Topher more dimensional in your eyes.

 **Joel Connell:** Agreed, the gag had to be finished. Also, karma did a good job giving appropriate payouts last time.

Friendly reminder that a **TVTropes** page exists, and it is always looking for help in improving, so if you think of a trope or something that could be added, go ahead. Now, with reviews out of the way, let's get through boot camp!

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD and some Total Drama shirts.

Episode 10- The Obsta-Kill Course

"Last time on Total Drama," Chris started to narrate over footage of the campers wandering through the tunnels, "we celebrated our one hundredth episode with a surprise guest appearance and a kidnapping of the hosty kind." Ezekiel was shown snarling, followed by the clip of him throwing the sack over Chris's body. "And I stayed strong," he continued to say despite a clip of him in a panic playing onscreen. When he was shown calling for help, annoyance entered his tone. "Hey! Who put that there?"

Clearing his throat as the recap continued, he said, "Alejandro found out Topher went against him to out Sugar's invincibility statue, and Sugar stirred the pot by suggesting it was Alejandro and Topher's fault that Sierra had left." Alejandro was shown reprimanding Topher, and then Sugar talking to Gwen before the kidnapping.

The clip of Chris calling for help over the toxic waste vat played again. "Okay, someone is so getting fired." Chef was then displayed eating ice cream worriedly as he watched Chris be held captive on the monitors. "Chef is a stress eater, Jasmine and Gwen freaked out, Jasmine saved me, and Topher got flushed." The wannabe host was last seen spinning down the giant toilet.

For a third time, Chris yelling for help appeared before the footage quickly cut to static.

"That is it!" Chris roared, the camera pulling back to show the recap had been played on the rolling monitor used to explain challenges and that Chris had unplugged it from in an outlet in the spa hotel's massage parlor with a severely irritated expression on his face. Once the offending clip was no longer seen, the host smiled. "Luckily, nothing gets me out of a bad mood faster than upping the ouch factor in a challenge."

Pointing to the camera recording him, he declared, "Stick around to see who goes down right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" As the traditional far shot of the island was displayed, Chris could be heard ordering, "Tell the editor to meet me at the Flush of Shame!"

That all turned to be a clip as the camera pulled back again to show Chef sitting in the monitor room, clicking the video off while chuckling.

(cue theme song)

* * *

The episode opened up on the spa hotel, zooming in on it and flashing inside to Cody walking through one of the halls.

"It was really nice of Jasmine to give me her spot in the hotel," he said to no one in particular. "I just wish I had someone else here with me. Being alone in this big place reminds me too much of my parents' house." As he passed a doorway, he stopped to peer inside. The cameras changed angles to show him looking in the monitor room Chef was just in. "Oh right, this is the room Chef showed us the other day. Sweet!" Grinning like a geek in a tech store, which was pretty close to the actual situation, he approached the desk with the keyboard and connected monitors he and the others had viewed in the previous episode. Curiously, there was a box of discs in cases sitting on the desk.

"I wonder if anybody would mind if I took a peek around here." He noticed the box of discs, and fingered through them, eventually picking out one. "Huh, this one's labelled Sugar Sabotage. Better take a look at this in case there's something we should be aware of." Popping the disc in a nearby slot, he pressed a key on the keyboard to start it up. The first thing to pop up on the computer screen was Sugar sneaking over to the girls' luggage in the middle of the night.

Cody squinted suspiciously at the girl on the screen. "What's she doing?"

He watched as Sugar opened Gwen's luggage and pulled out her diary, and the geek gasped audibly.

It was all there. The lever from the pancake challenge, making Sierra fall and drop her phone, new footage of Sugar stashing Gwen's diary in the mess hall's chimney, and Sugar sabotaging the boats from the regatta. After everything had been viewed, the screen went black and the disc popped out of the slot.

Taking it in his hand, Cody put the disc back in the case as a horror sting played in the background. "Gwen has _got_ to see this."

* * *

Meanwhile, Jasmine and Shawn had taken to foraging for their next meal. At a bush, Jasmine picked a berry and examined it with her eye before deeming it safe enough to put in the woven basket she held in her other hand. She proceeded to pick a few more while Shawn did the same at a different berry bush several feet away with a small baggy. A light tune jingled as the camera caught Shawn's happy smile. The smile turned fonder when he twisted around to view Jasmine, who didn't notice he was staring. After a few seconds, he returned to picking, unaware that Jasmine had moved to look at him with a similar fond grin for the same amount of time as he spent before resuming her foraging.

* * *

(Confessional- Shawn)

"Jasmine and I have known each other for a year, and the whole time I only ever saw her as a friend," Shawn explained. Looking down, he scratched at his soul-patched chin thoughtfully. "Maybe that's because we were always hanging out with Sammy, who we were both friends with. But now that we had that argument and made up, it's like I'm seeing Jasmine from a new perspective." He gave a dismissive sweep of his hand for emphasis. "Before, I always considered romance a big distraction that could doom you in the zombie apocalypse, but now… could I really like Jasmine that much?" Shrugging, he looked to the audience beyond the camera for an answer.

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

The extremely tall explorer took a berry from her basket, and tossed it into her mouth before she began to speak.

"Ever since I told my story to Shawn the other night, I can't stop considering a crush on the guy," she admitted. Jasmine took another berry, and ate it. "Is it possible that Shawn could very well be the first guy I ever liked that would _consider_ the notion of going out with me? Maybe. But I have to try and concentrate. This is the final six, and we're really entering crunch time now. I can't get too distracted, or even distracted, period." Reaching for a third berry, she tossed it into her mouth and swallowed.

* * *

Back at the loser cabin, all seemed peaceful until a loud fart pierced the air.

The viewpoint cut inside to Gwen, who had been writing in her diary, to gag while plugging her nose with her writing hand.

"Ugh, Sugar!" Gwen complained.

Zooming out, Sugar was seen eating a head of cabbage. "It wasn't me," she defended between bites and motioning to the vegetable, "it was this thing I got out of Chef's kitchen. Everything outta there makes things in your tummy go wonkier than my little brother when he's been eating paste." She let out another, less loud but still putrid fart. "Cabbage again."

"Ugh," Gwen grimaced, gathering her stuff and getting off her bunk bed. "That's it. I'm letting this place air out." Shoving her way out the cabin door, she glanced back at her roommate and muttered, "Even though Owen's been gone for _days_ , it's like he's still here." While her attention was elsewhere, her foot caught a broken floorboard on the porch, and she was sent tumbling down the front steps. "Whoa! Oof!"

She laid on the ground, limbs sprawled out and her diary off to the side, groaning. At that point, Cody came running over.

"Gwen, you okay?" He asked, helping her up.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just tripped on the stairs." Gwen dusted her hands on her skirt, and bent over to pick up her diary.

"Great," Cody said hurriedly, looking around for prying ears and eyes, "because there's something I need to tell you. It's about Sugar. She-."

"Attention, maggots!" Chris's voice was heard, and the pair shot looks up at the loudspeakers. "Last one to the meeting area in the forest drops and gives me fifty! Hup hup hup!"

Gwen sighed, rolling her eyes. "Today is going _really_ great so far."

Cody put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Gwen, focus. I found something important-."

Sugar slammed the cabin door open, throwing her cabbage aside.

"Alright, you two heard the guy! Let's move it!" Sugar shouted rather cheerfully, joining the two campers at the base of the steps and pulling them towards the woods by their arms.

* * *

By the time the campers found Chris, most of them were panting from the rush.

"At ease, maggots. It's about time you got here," Chris greeted like a drill sergeant, fittingly wearing his military hat from the war movie challenge in the second season. "I was almost getting bored." Looking past them, he saw Alejandro arrive with Chef in tow, the latter wearing his outfit from the basic training challenge in the first season along with his arm still in a cast and sling. "Glad you could join us, Alejandro. You know the deal- last one here equals push-ups there."

"Of course I'm going to be the last one here. I was exiled on Boney Island," defended Alejandro irritably.

"You mean…" Chris began to say before pulling out his favored red megaphone. "I was exiled on Boney Island, _sir_!"

Rolling his eyes, Alejandro decided not to argue further and got down to do the exercise.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"So, I'm back to doing things on my own just like the first time. It's for the best. Topher has shown me that there's nobody you can rely on to follow the plan except yourself. Now it's only a matter of getting the others to keep me on the island over that _falsa_ Sugar. I will not be going home before her, or my name isn't Alejandro Burromuerto," vowed the charmer.

Evidently, Chris was eavesdropping because his chuckles rang out over the loudspeakers. "Tell them what your last name means."

"It's a very respected name where I come from," Alejandro growled while looking away from the camera. " _Very_ respected."

* * *

"And, fifty!" The charmer finished his set, and stood up, dusting his hands off. "Didn't break a sweat." He walked over, and joined the other members of the final six for Chris to explain the challenge.

"Listen up, worms," Chris said in a poor imitation of a drill sergeant. "Chef's boot camp challenge in season one was tough. This is season five; things are about to get a whole lot more hurty with the McLean Obsta-Kill Course, patent pending!" He pointed at something off to the side with finger guns.

The camera panned right to a field of tires laid over mud. "To win this full-on race challenge to avoid elimination, and avoid getting the flush- first, you'll have to conquer the Fun Tires." Next shown was a wooden wall with four ropes of distinctive color- red on the left, black, brown, and then white on the far right. "Get through them, and you're onto the Rope Slope. Some ropes are less reliable than others. So choose wisely, but not too wisely. That will spoil the fun for me." Specifically, the camera zoomed in on the black rope, showing a frayed electric cord that if touched in the wrong place could shock somebody. Next to be shown was a set of ladders not unlike those found on a playground built over a small pond. "Next, the Snapping Bars!"

"Why are they called the Snapping Bars?" Jasmine inquired.

"Oh, you'll see," the host answered cryptically as the footage moved onto a seemingly normal field littered with large boulders and frequent bushes. "Then it's onto a pleasant run through the Duck and Cover. Come out of that alive, and you're in for a real treat."

Shawn blew a disbelieving raspberry, and glanced at Chris. "Piece of cake, which I know how to bake by the way."

"Ohhh," Chris teased in a challenging tone, making Shawn's face drop. "In that case…"

Shawn groaned miserably. "Aw man…"

"Everyone has to wear a heavy pack for the whole challenge!" Chris declared.

With his arm still busted, Chef directed a pair of interns to drop six identical backpacks, just like the packs the contestants wore in the mine the previous season, at the final six's feet. Shawn flinched as the majority complained to him for speaking up while Cody merely facepalmed at the turn of events.

"Abandon your pack, and you'll face a _brutal_ penalty," Chris warned, smiling throughout. He chuckled to himself. "Seriously, this is going to be awesome."

Without any further instructions being given, the campers moved to claim a backpack. Alejandro, boasting a confident smirk, picked one up from the pile first. Behind him, Jasmine and Shawn frowned at his back.

"This seems straightforward enough," Jasmine remarked to her alliance partner. "All we have to do is cross the finish line first to prevent him from getting immunity, and then we can vote him off."

"It only sounds easy, but trust me, as someone who has constructed obstacle courses like this at home to train for the apocalypse, there's bound to be a few surprises in there that we won't like," advised Shawn with the point of a cautionary index finger.

When Alejandro was once again shown in the frame, his new pack on his shoulders, Sugar walked over and shoved him aside, bending over to claim a backpack for herself. Feeling the pack's weight, she sent a scowl in Jasmine and Shawn's direction that they didn't appear to notice.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"Shoot! There's no way I'll be able to win this challenge and save my keister!" Sugar complained, her hands curled into fists at her hips. "Stupid Shawn saying that stuff about cake. Like, how can he be so dumb? There ain't any cake anywhere near this dang course." She uncurled one fist to raise a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "I should be okay this time, though. Everybody hates Alejandro like I do, so they'll be gunning for him this whole race. I'll probably do some sabotage to help make that happen for sure."

* * *

"She did _what_?" Gwen's tone went icy when the footage turned to her and Cody putting on their packs.

Cody held out his hands pleadingly. "It's true! I saw it on tape. If we win this challenge, I'll show you."

"Okay, but you realize what this means? I accused Heather of something she didn't do, and she was right. Ugh!" Gwen stomped a foot in anger. "I can't believe that someone like _Sugar_ played me like that. Look at her." She gestured off-screen with a hand.

The camera panned over to Sugar, who waited for the challenge to start by picking at her belly button crud.

"She really doesn't look like the type, but that's what made her trick work," Cody pointed out.

"Man, I feel so burned that I want to go over and tell her off right now." The loner turned to do so, but Cody grabbed her arm.

"Just calm down. I know your diary is really important to you, but yelling at her now isn't a good idea. If she wins the challenge, she could put a target on you." He reasoned, cooling her anger. "Let's just get through this challenge, and try to convince Jasmine and Shawn to vote her out."

Gwen frowned, huffing as she crossed her arms, yanking the one away from Cody in the process. "Fine. But waiting to give her an earful is going to be hard."

* * *

A flash forward cut to the final six at the starting line. Chris stood off to the side with his megaphone.

"On your marks, get set," Chris announced as they got into position, "go!" He pulled out his air horn, and signaled for the challenge to begin.

Jasmine and Shawn, the fastest two players, were the first to reach the Fun Tires. Everything started out nicely, so Shawn began to feel confident about his chances.

"This is easy!" he remarked.

Jasmine ran beside him until a wooden beam shot up in front of her when she stepped on a particular tire, yelping in surprised pain.

Hearing the scream, Shawn briefly looked back at his crush. "Huh?" Then he felt himself fall into a hole. "Whoa!" The conspiracy nut gasped when he momentarily fell out of view. The camera zoomed out to show he had somehow fallen waist deep into a tire with one foot stuck out of it in an uncomfortable angle. "Ow! My foot is touching my face!"

Around him, other traps like another wooden beam and a spring-loaded boxing glove popped up at random intervals.

"You dung beetles didn't think Colonel McLean would give you a straight-ahead challenge, did you?" Chris teased over the loudspeakers strung along the course.

On another section of the Fun Tires, Cody and Gwen ran in an area where geysers seemed to spew water up around them.

"Gwen!" Seeing a geyser starting to erupt, Cody grabbed Gwen by the arm and pulled her back.

"Thanks! Behind you!" Spinning around, Gwen saw another geyser and brought Cody closer to her to avoid him getting caught in it.

Cody grinned thankfully at her. "Glad you have my back."

"Same to you," Gwen replied with a smile of her own.

Alejandro, who had fallen victim to a trap or two further back, noticed them having a moment and frowned.

* * *

(Confessional- Alejandro)

"It is a surprise to see Gwen and Cody have gotten this far once again," he commented, still wearing the pack from the challenge. "But to see them working together? That is even more of a surprise since I recall Gwen finding Cody to be a nuisance."

* * *

The charmer caught up to the pair. "Greetings, old amigos. How goes the challenge?"

"Ugh," Cody groaned while rolling his eyes and dodging one of the boxing glove traps, "go away, Al."

"Wait," Gwen interrupted, "Alejandro, you're planning to get rid of Sugar, right?"

"That I am," Alejandro confirmed with a nod of his head.

"Then we're after her too. You see, she-."

Cody's eyes went wide while he was still looking ahead, and he seized Gwen by the wrist, pulling her down with him. "Duck!"

Before Alejandro could inquire why, a tire slammed into his body.

"Hah! Take that, Ale-dummy!" Sugar cackled in front of them, twin traps of fire cropping up beside her, and she pointed at him in humiliation. Still laughing at her own joke, she continued the challenge.

"She's getting away. Come on!" Cody got back up on his feet and ran to pursue, leaving behind Gwen and Alejandro, the latter stuck in another hole trap like the one Shawn got caught in.

Looking back at the fallen charmer, Gwen rose up. "Sorry, Alejandro. We'll help get her out." She went to join Cody, being mindful to avoid a wooden hammer trap and another trap that appeared to involve nearly getting bitten by a beaver.

* * *

Jasmine and Shawn recovered from their traps, and reached the end of the Fun Tires, moving onto the second obstacle.

Chris and Chef drove up beside the Fun Tires' end in their favored jeep.

"Jasmine and Shawn are in the lead, and are heading for the Rope Slope. This ought to be good," Chris chuckled, as if he knew some secret they didn't.

Jasmine went for the most normal-looking rope on the far right while Shawn took the brown rope beside her.

"Race you to the top," Jasmine cheerfully challenged her friend, beginning to quickly scale the slope.

"You're on!" Shawn began to climb, and then paused. "Wait a second." Closely sniffing his rope, he furrowed his brow. "The heck is this rope made of? It smells _rank_."

"Haha, looks like Shawn figured out his rope is made of dog hair," Chris updated over the loudspeakers.

The conspiracy nut blinked upon hearing the announcement. "Wait. That's what this is made of. How'd he even collect this much hair for the rope?" Shaking his head, he scrambled to catch up to Jasmine.

Sugar was next to reach the Rope Slope, and she went for the left-most rope, the red one. She began to climb when she too smelled her rope.

"Is this… licorice?" She took a second whiff to confirm, and when she was sure of her guess, she grinned. "How about some really _delicious_ sabotage?" The pageant queen proceeded to bite into her rope and start eating it as she climbed further up the ramp.

Gwen and Cody arrived, and while Gwen took the dog hair rope, Cody took the black one.

"This one seems really sturdy. It should hold," Cody observed after giving it a tug. Once he settled on his choice, he began the climb.

"Just hurry, Cody. Sugar's at the top now." Gwen informed him, checking the top of the slope.

Shawn had just jumped over to the other side of the ramp while Sugar seemed to struggle pulling herself over the top.

"I'm coming!" Cody pulled himself up, and didn't notice when he put his hand over an exposed part of the sparking wire inside the rope. The geek jittered as electricity pulsed through him.

Chris chuckled once more. "Looks like someone found my favorite rope- _the zapper_."

Alejandro ran past the host and Chef, stopping to observe the bit of licorice rope that Sugar didn't eat. He then stared at the three ropes left, and gazed upward.

"Gwen's on the brown one, and Cody seems to have selected one with electricity. Perhaps the most normal-looking rope would be the wisest decision," he concluded. He grabbed the same rope Jasmine had chosen, and began to climb.

Cody hung where he had gotten shocked, smoke visibly floating off of him, and soon Alejandro reached his level.

"Pick your ropes carefully next time, amigo," Alejandro advised nonchalantly as he made his way up, leaving Cody in last place. As he left, Cody twitched when he got shocked a second time.

Back at the base of the ramp, Chris declared, "Will anyone survive the Obsta-Kill Course? Will Cody become a human hot dog? Will I laugh no matter what? Yes to that, but for all the other answers? Stay tuned to Total Drama All-Stars!"

* * *

When the show returned from its break, the first thing to appear was the Snapping Bars, where viciously snapping turtles appeared to be lurking in the pond below the ladder. Jasmine was already halfway across, trying to avoid her long legs getting bitten by the turtles.

"Jasmine is the first to reach the Snapping Bars, followed by Shawn and Sugar," updated Chris as Shawn and Sugar began their crossing.

When a turtle jumped particularly high, Shawn let out a yelp and swung his legs up to the bars.

"I'm starting to understand why these are called the Snapping Bars," he remarked. "And it is _not_ funny!"

Seeing the turtle's attempt, Sugar decided on a different course of action. "Yeah," she drawled flatly, "between that and maybe falling into the water and ruining my makeup, I'm gonna go _over_ instead of under." Seizing a loophole that Chris didn't mention, she climbed on top of the ladder and started crawling her way across.

Noticing Sugar's tactic, Shawn facepalmed. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Alejandro and Gwen reached the obstacle next, and while Gwen went the same way Jasmine and Shawn were going, Alejandro took note of Sugar's way along with the fact Jasmine was almost done, and decided Sugar's method would be quicker. He climbed overhead, and hand walked his way across the bars speedily. When he came across Sugar, he performed a front flip over her, and continued hand walking to the other side.

"Oh no you don't, you big showoff," Sugar protested and reached out to grab his wrist, yanking it out from under him.

"Gah!" Alejandro went wide-eyed at his loss of balance, and fell forward onto his back, his pack thankfully cushioning his fall.

Beneath them, Shawn and Gwen found their path stalled because Alejandro's pack made the bars inaccessible to grip.

"Oh great," Gwen griped with an annoyed frown. "Now what?"

"I'm going to make a jump for it. Just have to swing hard enough." Shawn did as he said he was going to do, and swung himself back and forth, taking care not to hit Gwen, and on his final swing, he let go of the bars, and reached the end. "Yeah!"

Jasmine, who had been at the end already, clapped her hands. "Nice job, Shawn!" Turning on her heel, she moved onto the next obstacle.

Chris and Chef rode up in their jeep as Jasmine left. "Jasmine still holds the lead, and Shawn is close on her trail."

"I'm not sure if I can jump that far," Gwen said, and then looked back up to the two competitors blocking her way.

Finally getting the wind back in him, Alejandro managed to stand up and decided to run the rest of the way. Shawn had just gotten off the Snapping Bars when Alejandro jumped down in front of him, making him flinch.

"Hey, no fair!" Sugar called out indignantly.

"Nobody said you only had to use your hands to get across," Alejandro pointed out with a cheeky smile, turning to move on. Shawn frowned behind his back, and ran after him.

"He's got a point," Gwen agreed as she passed underneath the pageant queen. Grumbling, Sugar continued crawling along, not confident in her heels being able to walk on the bars.

Cody finally reached the bars, and climbed on. "Hey, wait up!" As soon as he got onto the second and third bars, he gasped for strength. "Either that rope shocked all the energy out of me, or this pack is just really heavy… no!" The geek lost his grip, and he fell into the pond, where he was immediately attacked by the turtles.

"Cody!" Gwen shouted in concern, looking back when she heard he had arrived.

Managing to get away from the turtles, but not without more than a few bites, Cody swam to the other side of the pond, and hauled himself out of the water, collapsing on his belly.

"Are you okay?" asked Gwen, who hopped down from the end of the bars to check on him.

"I'll be fine. I'll catch up. Just go," Cody told her as Sugar finished the bars and jumped to the ground before running onto the next part. "Sugar can't win immunity."

"Okay, if you're sure." Gwen hurried away to make sure Sugar didn't get too far ahead.

* * *

At the Duck and Cover, Alejandro found that it was mysteriously vacant of campers.

"Que? Where did those survival junkies go?" He looked around, wondering. "They were ahead of me."

"We're right here." Shawn answered, and he along with Jasmine both popped up from behind a large boulder.

"What are you doing back there?" Alejandro inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Mate, it's called Duck and Cover for a reason," Jasmine pointed out. "And we're ducking so we don't find out."

"Also, we don't appreciate being called _survival junkies_ ," Shawn added with a point of his finger.

"My apologies. Now, while I've got you here, may I attempt to convince you in voting out Sugar tonight?" Alejandro said.

"Why should we?" Jasmine narrowed her eyes, folding her arms over her chest. "You're the biggest threat to the game left. You'd have to be a fool not to go after someone like you."

"Because, as much as I dislike downplaying myself, the biggest threat in the game left is actually Sugar."

Shawn snorted beside Jasmine. "Yeah, right."

"Think about it. Nobody with Sugar's… _character_ ever gets this far unless people underestimate them. Not to mention she managed to find the invincibility statue and keep it hidden until she had an opportunity to play it without receiving blame."

Jasmine and Shawn shared a glance before looking at the charmer once more.

"You may have a point," Shawn conceded. "But for all we know, this is just another trick of yours to reach the finals." He and Jasmine looked around, and then jogged away from their hiding spot further into the Duck and Cover's area.

"It could be that," Alejandro admitted, following them. "But, I wouldn't admit that if that was the case. This is a genuine warning. Have you missed how she's attacked Topher and me? Gah!"

Suddenly, a leech struck his forehead. As the leech swelled, Alejandro fell to his knees weakly.

Jasmine cringed. "That ain't right."

"Forgot to mention," the three campers looked over and saw Chris and Chef afar, the former once again wielding his megaphone. Beside him, Chef held one of the paintball guns from the leech challenge earlier in the season. Even with his injured arm, he was able to use the weapon effectively. "This is Chef's favorite place to unwind with some leechball target practice. So you better duck, and you better find cover." For emphasis, Chef shot two leeches. Both Jasmine and Shawn yelped upon impact.

"I guess we found out why we should be ducking," Jasmine remarked, pulling off the leech that struck her.

"Less chit-chat, more cover!" Shawn yelled, tugging away his own. He yelped as he dodged to the side, allowing Alejandro to be hit with more leeches.

" _Madre mida_ ," Alejandro groaned, only to be hit with more that covered his face.

Jasmine and Shawn dove behind the nearest boulder, narrowly avoiding being hit. When he no longer heard fire, Shawn sprinted away.

"Shawn takes the lead!" Chris announced.

By this point, Sugar, Gwen, and Cody all entered the third obstacle. Appearing much winded, Sugar stopped to catch her breath while Gwen and Cody got ahead of her.

"This might be the most I've ran since that county mud run," Sugar complained, and then straightened up when her stomach began to gurgle ominously. "Ooh, that cabbage bus is almost at the end of the tunnel." Doing her best to ignore her body's exhaustion, the pageant queen pushed herself to keep moving.

Ahead of her, Gwen and Cody ducked behind a bush just in time for leeches to go zipping past.

"We're almost there," Gwen said as she and her geek of an alliance partner peered over the bush.

"And Sugar is behind us," Cody pointed out. "Perfect! All we need to do is make sure she doesn't win, try to convince Jasmine and Shawn to vote with us, and she's done for."

"What about Alejandro? I'm pretty sure he's against her too," brought up Gwen.

Cody rolled his eyes. "Forget Alejandro. The guy deluded Sierra into thinking she and I were married, and nearly fed me to sharks. I don't want anything to do with the guy."

"But he would be an easy vote to get rid of Sugar."

"Hey, do you want to team up with the same guy who played everyone? Or, do you want to team up with people you can actually _trust_?"

Unsure of how to respond to that, Gwen instead settled for moving forward with the challenge and sorting the vote out later. Cody moved to follow, but his pack caught onto a protruding bush branch. "Ugh, dumb backpack. Knowing Chris, it's just a bunch of bricks." Slipping his arms out of the shoulder straps, Cody hurried to catch up with Gwen. "Penalty my butt."

* * *

Jasmine poked her head up from behind a rock, and ducked as a leech flew in her direction. She turned to face Shawn, who was still beside her. "You were on Sugar's team last year. Do you think Alejandro could possibly be right about her?"

Shawn shrugged vaguely. "I'm not sure, to be honest. Outside of challenges, I pretty much stayed away from everyone. I think he's just trying to bluff us to draw attention away from himself. He knows we all know what he's really like."

Rather than give a verbal reply, Jasmine crossed her arms and scrunched her brow in thought.

* * *

"Eheehee," Sugar guffawed, running from one cover of rock to another. "I think I'm in the lead. Hello, final five!" As she passed a bush, her pack got caught similarly to Cody's. "Aw horse waffles. Ack!" A leech hit her forehead. "Hey, don't smudge the makeup!" More leeches hit her, making her flinch and scream several more times.

Alejandro still had one or two leeches on his face, but he apparently recovered enough to make some progress through the zone. That was where Gwen found him.

"Alejandro, we need to talk- whoa," Gwen began to say then cringed once she saw the leeches still stuck to him. "You've got a few… here…" She awkwardly motioned with her hand to her face.

Looking where she indicated, Alejandro removed the leeches. "What do you want?" he asked rather icily.

"Listen, I know you and Sugar have been butting heads, and up until now I didn't care," the loner stated.

"I see. What makes you suddenly invested in my feud?" Alejandro adopted a disinterested expression, though his words indicated otherwise.

Gwen jabbed a finger back where she left Cody. "I found out from Cody that she was the one that stole my diary days ago. I want payback." Emphasizing her point, she pounded a fist into an open palm. "He and I are going to vote her out, and since you're definitely against Sugar, I propose we team up just this once to get rid of someone we both hate."

"Uniting against a common enemy, hm? I can work with that." A devious smile formed on the charmer's face.

"Don't let your head get too inflated," Gwen warned with a stern point of her finger. "Once Sugar is out, you're _next_ on our list."

"As are the both of you on mine," Alejandro replied, still smiling. "Consider us in agreement."

As Gwen grinned at the prospect of getting another vote against Sugar, the camera panned over to show Cody gasping at the sight of his alliance partner conspiring with one of his most-despised enemies.

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"Gwen, no! Didn't I just tell you _not_ to do that?" Cody exclaimed in the outhouse, throwing his arms wide.

* * *

Still struggling at the bush, Sugar caught sight of Jasmine and Shawn passing her. With newfound resolve, she finally unhooked herself from the bush and swiped off all the leeches to pursue them.

"The coast is clear! Let's run for it!" Shawn said quickly as they jogged past, only for the pair of adventurers to swiftly come to a halt. "Whoa!"

The pair had come to a cliff, their footwork sending a few small rocks tumbling off the edge and into the ravine of water below. They could hear the rocks plunking into the water, and they glanced up to see a pair of ziplines above them and Chris on the other side with a checkered finish line.

"Told ya you were in for a real treat," Chris teased through his megaphone before reverting back into his colonel persona. "This is it, maggots! The final obstacle! All you have to do is get to where I'm standing, alive."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Shawn asked incredulously, raising his voice so Chris could hear him across the distance.

"Hellooo," Chris drawled out as if it were obvious, and pointed at his back. "Backpacks?"

Taking the hint, Jasmine and Shawn removed their packs from their shoulders, and opened them up on the ground. When they reached inside, they found helmets and harnesses.

"Ziplining! That's how we're supposed to get across," Jasmine realized with a grin.

"Ziplining?" Sugar repeated in outrage, and the pair turned to see she had arrived at the edge of the Duck and Cover zone. "Being a pageant winner and all, I have lots of talents. But I don't have a talent for that!"

Jasmine smirked at her. "I guess we don't have to worry about losing to you then." Taking her helmet in hand, she began to buckle it around her head.

Scowling at the remark, Sugar worked quickly to get ready before the explorers did. To her dismay, Shawn had gotten ready first.

"See you guys on the other side!" Shawn hooked his harness onto the zipline, and took a running jump off the cliff.

Jasmine sighed blissfully as she approached the line. "That boy sure is something." Before she could hook up, Sugar rushed over and shoved her aside. "Hey!"

"You moved too slow, and I gotta win this thing." Sugar copied Shawn's actions, including the line he took, and took off down the line at a faster pace due to her heavier weight. The camera panned to Shawn, and showed Sugar was quickly catching up to him.

Frowning, Jasmine hooked herself onto the line and followed. Right after she left, Alejandro, Gwen, and Cody all arrived on the scene.

"Wait, we actually _needed_ the backpacks?" Cody checked, surprised to find out that they weren't dead weight like he thought.

"Told you there would be a penalty, bro!" Chris answered loudly.

Annoyed, Gwen whirled around to shoot a look at the geek, who smiled sheepishly. "Cody!"

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"How was I supposed to know that we were going to end up needing them?" Cody attempted to defend. "I thought Chris just saddled us with them because Shawn couldn't keep his mouth shut."

* * *

"Don't look into this too deeply," Gwen warned Cody when she let Cody hitch a ride across with her. Alejandro made the jump before them, but Cody's added weight allowed the pair to match pace with him.

"The race for last starts as the race for first is about to end," Chris announced as he stood by the finish line. "Shawn looks unbeatable, but wait!" Shawn was shown cruising along the line, but Sugar appeared moments later, matching his speed. She caught up to him so closely that she accidentally kicked his head.

"Ow!" Shawn put his free hand to his head, looking back at her with a frown. "Watch your feet!"

"Not my fault you're going too slow!" Sugar shot back as she got close enough to be practically on top of him. The pair slowed down, and they looked up to see that their harnesses had gotten tangled up in each other. "Oh great… this is all your fault."

"My fault? You're the one who didn't go on the _other_ line like a normal person! Why didn't you go with that one?" Shawn accused.

"I figured this was the _faster_ one. I mean, that's why you took it, wasn't it?"

Shawn stared at her in disbelief. "How does that even make sense? Neither line is faster than the other."

"I don't know. I've never been ziplining before!"

Their combined weight was too much for the lines, and they snapped. As they began to scream and fall, Jasmine came up behind them on the other line and shot a hand out to grab Shawn by an arm.

"Gotcha!" She exclaimed proudly.

"Thanks!" The conspiracy nut shot her a grateful smile.

"Nooo!" Sugar cried out, falling into the river below.

"Jasmine makes a last-second save," Chris declared right as Jasmine crossed the finish line with Shawn in hand. "while winning immunity!"

Down in the river with makeup running down her cheeks, Sugar smacked a fist against the water in frustration.

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"This close! This close! And more of my makeup got ruined too!" Sugar complained in the outhouse. Huffing, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Hopefully those chicken-for-brains are more focused on getting rid of Al, than they are on getting rid of me."

* * *

(Confessional- Jasmine)

"Sugar isn't the most… pleasant person to be around, all things including today considered," Jasmine admitted. "But, she's still not worse than Alejandro. We can take her another time, but Alejandro? That wily devil needs to be eliminated, pronto."

* * *

Jasmine and Shawn were standing beside Chris at the finish line, out of their gear, and waiting for the rest of the contestants still running the challenge to finish. Alejandro had a respectable third place, followed by Gwen and Cody, the two of them screaming as they arrived and colliding in an off-screen crash that made Jasmine and Shawn wince.

Chris chuckled at Gwen and Cody's pain. " _Bonus ouchies_! You can count your bruises while I count the elimination votes tonight. Jasmine's safe from the Flush of Shame, so who's going home I wonder?" He playfully thought out loud.

The camera zoomed in on Jasmine and Shawn sharing a nervous look, to Sugar lurking in the water, to Alejandro in the process of removing his gear, and finally to Gwen and Cody laying on the ground in pain. The show faded to commercial on the sight of the latter two groaning out their agony.

* * *

When the show returned, it was still late afternoon. Shawn and Jasmine were in the woods, sitting on a picnic blanket with their baskets from that morning between them. The pair sat contently, sorting through their findings.

After a moment, Shawn looked up at Jasmine. "So, here we are… on a picnic blanket… this isn't like some sort of _date_ neither of us realized was a date, is it?"

"What?" Jasmine met his gaze, equally flustered and waving a hand in dismissal. "Oh gosh no. It's not counted as a date if neither of us planned for it to be."

"Oh." Shawn looked down at his spread, quickly looking up at Jasmine before returning his attention to his collection. "Good." He tossed a berry in his mouth.

Before the air could get any more awkward, Cody walked onto the scene. "Hey, guys. Listen, about tonight…" He started off slowly, unsure if he was interrupting something.

Both explorers glanced up at the geek, curious about what he was coming to them for.

* * *

In a flash cut, night had come and the bonfire ceremony was underway.

"You guys are really living up to the title of the show. I'm seeing a lot of drama around the camp tonight," Chris commented.

To prove his point, Gwen was shown leering at Sugar, who scowled at Alejandro, who in turn sent a serious stare at Shawn, who shared a hesitant glance with Jasmine, who sent a questioning look at Cody, who glared at someone the camera didn't indicate.

Holding up the photos used for votes, Chris looked them over. "I've tallied the votes, and the person taking the Flush of Shame is…"

Gwen's pale hand curled into a fist.

Sugar looked down as her stomach rumbled uncomfortably.

Alejandro grasped his family necklace.

Shawn looked back and forth, his frantic nature breaking through.

Jasmine, as the only one immune from the vote, merely pursed her lips.

Cody gripped his jeans tight in anticipation.

"… Alejandro, you're Ale- _done_ -dro!" Chris showed the photos, revealing a photo of Alejandro with a red X over it.

Rather than make a big show of shock, Alejandro merely turned to face Jasmine and Shawn. "So, you two decided not to heed my advice."

"Sorry," Jasmine apologized without meaning much of it. "We just decided you were too much of a risk to keep around."

Shawn nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, even after Cody told us what Sugar did, we figured we'd have another chance next time."

Alejandro shifted his gaze over to Sugar, who mockingly blew him a kiss. He didn't even suppress the shudder this time. "Or, you may have made a grave mistake that cost you this game. Sleep on that." With nothing else to say, he made his way down to the Flush of Shame.

"Bye, Al! Enjoy the ride!" Sugar happily waved as he exited.

"Don't call me 'Al'!" Alejandro shouted back, making everyone flinch at his volume.

"Okay, while Alejandro gets ready to depart," Chris continued the ceremony, "Jasmine, as winner, you get to pick a friend to bunk with Cody in the spa hotel."

"I pick Gwen," Jasmine declared, looking at the loner. "Considering what I've heard today, she probably shouldn't bunk in the same _room_ as Sugar." She thought for a moment. "Actually, do I get to pick who does Boney Island too? Because I pick Sugar for that."

Sugar gaped at her. "What? What did I do?"

Gwen stood from her seat, pointing at the pageant queen. "You stole my diary, that's what! I would be less mad if you stole something else of mine, but my diary? That's crossing a line! I put my innermost thoughts and feelings in there!"

Sugar shrugged in defense. "Don't get all huffy. I didn't even read the darn thing. I just wanted to make you mad. It was all part of the game."

"I don't care if you didn't read it. The point is I draw the line at people taking certain things that belong to me, and you crossed it. Whatever the next challenge is, you better hope that you win it because you're _following_ Alejandro down that toilet. Ugh!" Stomping her foot, Gwen stomped off towards the cabins.

"Hey, I didn't finish the ceremony yet!" Chris shouted after her. Annoyed, Chris answered Jasmine's question prior to Gwen's outburst. "Before that rude exit, I was going to say that you did have the power to pick someone to go to Boney Island, and I guess you already picked so… Sugar, wait for Chef. Everyone else, head back to the cabins."

* * *

(Confessional- Cody)

"I really tried to convince Jasmine and Shawn to vote out Sugar instead of Alejandro, but they seemed to have made up their minds." Sighing, Cody added, "Sorry Gwen, I did the best I could."

* * *

(Confessional- Sugar)

"What a load of hogwash," Sugar huffed. "It ain't my fault she didn't figure me out sooner." Her stomach gurgled again, and she put her hands to it. "Uh oh, here comes that big ol' rope of licorice."

The footage cut to the outside of the Confession Cam, where a baby deer and a few birds were wandering around it. Suddenly, a loud fart rang out from the outhouse, accompanied by a green cloud leaking out through the windows. The baby deer's ears flattened against its head, and it pranced away in a hurry while the little birds dropped unconsciously onto the ground. A skunk poked its head into view from behind a tree, and even it looked ready to puke, ducking behind the tree again.

* * *

Alejandro was now in the giant toilet.

"You all have made a big mistake," he warned even though nobody came down to see him off except Chris. "You may know what Sugar is like now, but she will still give you more trouble than you think. At least with me, you'd know how strong of an opponent you have!"

Chris raised a hand to cover up a yawn, but did so unsuccessfully. "Aw, go home and reunite with your girlfriend already." Lifting his remote, he activated the flush.

Alejandro let out a scream as he spun down the drain and out of sight.

"That's another player down, and only five remain. How will Sugar survive with everyone out to get her? Will Gwen cool down from the big shock? And will Jasmine and Shawn spit out their feelings for each other? You'll just have to find out when the final five become the fortunate four next time right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" Chris concluded.

(cue end credits)

* * *

 **(Bonus Clip)**

Much like Duncan, Alejandro was tossed ashore by a tide and the water receded, revealing his soaked form.

"Ugh, dios mio," Alejandro muttered irritably, then he saw a pair of feet enter his vision. The charmer looked up.

"Looks like the _eel_ finally washed up," a snarky voice spoke. The viewpoint changed to show the face of none other than Noah. "I guess the others finally decided to hang you out to dry, eh Al?"

His eye twitching, Alejandro got up. "You do not have the right to call me that."

"We're standing on American soil, pal. Freedom of speech." Noah stated smugly, arms folded over his chest.

Before Alejandro could retort, a pair of tanned hands grabbed at his face and the handsome visage of Justin pulled himself into frame so he could get a close look at the newest eliminated camper.

"Ah man, and here I thought you being stuck in that robot suit would leave you paler than me, and maybe with a _few_ unattractive scars," remarked Justin, who sounded disappointed that Alejandro looked well.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Way to have your priorities straight, anti-me."

His irritation growing, Alejandro smacked the model's hands away from his face. "To what do I owe the presence of you fools?"

"Hey, it was either some of us come get you, or you could try and find your way back to Canada yourself."

"Wait. American soil? Find my way back to Canada? Where are we?" Alejandro looked around, only for his questioning glance to fall flat into annoyance. "I remember this place." The footage zoomed out to show the three young men standing on a tropical beach with a sunset in the background.

"Yeah, we're in Hawaii. Isn't it great? I was born here, and lived here up until I moved to Canada for my modeling." Justin said, oblivious to Alejandro's displeasure with the location. "While we waited for you to show up, we visited some of my family. It's really great to be home."

"I'm just glad that the rest of your family has more brain cells than you do," quipped Noah. He motioned to the two more attractive men. "Now that we've found Eelejandro, let's get off this tourist trap. With the finale coming up fast, we need to start getting ready."

"Ready? For what?" Alejandro asked.

"The future Mrs. Burromuerto can tell you when we get back." Noah began to walk away.

"Why can't you tell me now?" The charmer further pressed as he and Justin proceeded to follow him.

"Two reasons- first, I don't like you. Second, I only came to pick you up so I could enjoy your defeat up close."

Alejandro looked to Justin, his question silently communicated to the model. Justin shrugged in response. "Don't ask me. I just came to see if you've lost any attractiveness so I could win back some of my female fans you stole. I have no idea about half the stuff that's going on. All I know this originally started out as a rescue mission so Noah and his friends could go retrieve Owen, and it grew from there when everyone heard what he was up to."

Looking back and forth between his rescuers, Alejandro sighed. "Some welcoming committee." The boys finally walked out of frame, and the clip faded to black.

* * *

 **Alejandro- 6th**

 **Topher- 7th**

 **Sierra- 8th**

 **Sammy- 9th**

 **Duncan- 10th**

 **Heather- 11th**

 **Beardo- 12th**

 **Scarlett- 13th**

 **Owen- 14th**

 **And the other half of the Alejandro/Topher alliance falls. Alejandro tried his best to work independently, but his attempts were in vain. Originally, he and Topher had swapped eliminations so Topher would've been eliminated here instead, but then I realized with Alejandro being a more dangerous player, Sugar would be able to slip by this elimination easier. Even though Sugar's schemes have been outed, I figured that players like Jasmine and Shawn would be confident enough in their skill to take care of her at a later point while Alejandro would be more difficult. Also, if Topher had been in Alejandro's place, he would've been the one to mouth off at the beginning of the challenge and get everyone to wear backpacks, fully mirroring both occasions in canon where Scott filled the role.**

 **Going into this, I thought it would be disgustingly amusing for Sugar to win the challenge by using gas from the cabbage and the licorice to get a speed boost to pass Shawn, but then I realized that would make Alejandro's elimination a foregone conclusion. After that, I figured that if you're going to have characters racing over a ravine, at least one of them has to fall in. Hence the outcome we got. Cody receiving the hotel reward from Jasmine has paid off in the form of Sugar ultimately being exposed as the true thief of Gwen's diary, and Gwen learned that her roommate has been lying to her the whole time.**

 **Aside from being another location where a race occurred, Hawaii is an important location connected to Alejandro's character. It's where he reached the final two, where he and Heather shared their first kiss, and where karma paid him in full by letting him get burned by lava. I chose Noah to be one of his rescuers because the leader of this little project should appear sometime, and because it was after Noah, one of the show's few anchors of sanity, left World Tour that the season started to get crazy with Ezekiel having turned feral, the Gwuncan triangle playing out, Blaineley joining the game, and Alejandro being burned and put in the Drama Machine. Justin was chosen as the second person to retrieve Alejandro because the character is canonically Hawaiian, he's Noah's 'opposite self', and could be called a beta Alejandro. Plus, as the two 'handsome' guys on the show, we never got a chance to see Alejandro and Justin interact.**

 **Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!**


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